I'm A WHAT?
by SuperApplePie
Summary: Naruto, suddenly finding himself in another world, tries to make heads and tails of what's going on. What he DOES know is that Kurama's missing and he has very limited time to find him. Well, whatever, time to get going! Only... who are these weird people who claim to know him and WHY THE HELL IS HE ALREADY A WANTED CRIMINAL IN THIS WORLD?
1. A Confusing Day

_**I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail**_

* * *

The forest, which had been been a majestic display of green just a few minutes ago, was being consumed by columns of hungry orange flames. It was almost like a rabid beast had started eating everything in it's path.

I tried to bring himself up but, once again, the strength left my legs in a flash.

It was too much... The thick black smoke was depriving me of the much needed oxygen and the scorching heat that was being produced by the blazing inferno around me was too much for me to endure.

I turned my head and took a glazed account of my surroundings.

Swords.

A whole bunch of swords.

They were everywhere. Many of them were sticking out of the ground and trees, but most of them were lying on the ground like littered garbage. Some were producing faint traces of electricity or wind, while others were producing water or ice (which was evaporating the instant it was produced).

Some were missing hilts, some were missing blades, some had half a blade or half a hilt left, and some were just completely shattered from hilt to blade. The only detail that they all shared with each other was the fact that there was not a single sword that had not been broken in some way.

I lifted my head up.

A man.

My vision was fading and my eyes were become more and more clouded by tears but I was still sure enough... There was a black haired man standing in front me who was holding his right hand over my stomach.

An unholy black color started emanating from the black haired man's hand and suddenly-!

"Gh-GHAAAAAA!" I screamed in pain.

It felt as if he had shoved his limbs inside my stomach and was trying to rip out the organ with his bare hands.

I had no strength, so I could not move to stop him; That's why, I screamed.

I screamed and screamed but the black haired man did not stop.

Eventually, my voice became hoarse and I could no longer even scream.

But the pain did not stop. Instead, the pain actually got worse.

Before, it felt like he was trying to rip out my stomach, but now... now it felt like he was actually succeeding.

Desperately, I tried to think of my predicament, but the pain was too unbearable for me to actually focus.

 _'Wh-what should I do?'_

 _ **'Three years,'**_ A deep voice resonated from within me.

I don't know why, but I felt a sense of comfort invade my pain-ridden body as I heard that voice.

 ** _'I can give you only three years at most,'_** The voice informed calmly, **_'If you don't manage to find me before three years have passed...then you will surely die.'_**

I had so many questions.

Who did I have find?

Why would I die if I didn't find this person before three years had passed?

What was going on?

Where was I?

Why was I in so much pain?

Who was this black haired man in front of me?

All these questions swirled around inside of my mind but I couldn't muster up the strength to ask them.

I still tried anyway.

"Wh... Wha-"

Before I could say anything though, the pain reached even greater heights.

It was as though the black haired man had actually managed to rip out my stomach from its rightful position.

I gagged as I brought my face to the ground and screamed in pain again,

"GHAAAAAAA!"

I breathed deeply.

The pain was fading.

But so was something else.

Something extremely important that I simply couldn't pinpoint.

I tried bringing my head up again in hopes of figuring the situation out but, at that exact moment, I felt my consciousness slipping away like water being poured out of a cup.

"N-No..."

I mustered up my remaining willpower and brought my head up in a burst of last-ditch effort.

There, in front of me, was a rapidly growing monster that was forming out of red bubbles that looked like quite dangerous to touch. The monster turned its head to look at me and, as soon as I saw its snout, I felt a curious feeing of familiarity.

I reached my hand out towards it but it simply gave me a vulpine grin and turned its head away.

Before I crashed to the ground again and lost my final shred of consciousness, I was sure...

Sure that the monster in front of me had exactly nine tails.

* * *

Naruto groaned as he slowly opened his eyes before he reflexively closed them again in order to protect them from the sun. He tried to bring his hand up to cover his eyes, but, for some reason, they would not respond.

 _'Wh-where am I?'_ He asked himself, _'And what the hell was that weird vision? It felt way too real to be a dream.'_

He tried to move his arms again and was met with the same result,

"Ugh," He grunted, "What the hell is going on?"

Suddenly, he heard a gasp from his right, and he wasn't sure since his eyes were still closed, but the gasp sounded pretty feminine.

"Um, can you please close the curtains or something?" Naruto asked with a wince, "I would close them myself but I can't really move right now."

"O-oh, I'm so sorry!" The mystery person apologized; if Naruto were to guess, then he would have to say that the person sounded like a girl just below her teens, "I'll close them right away!"

Naruto heard the sounds of shuffling and the above him him before the glare from the sun disappeared.

He grinned and opened his eyes, "Thanks."

The person standing above him, a brown haired young girl with chubby features, shyly smiled back,

"I-it was no problem, Naruto-sama."

Naruto's grin widened internally, _'No matter how many times I hear it, it still feels awesome to know that everyone out there knows my name as the hero of the Fourth Great Shinobi World.'_

His eyes, now free of the sun's assault, roved around in order determine his location.

It was a simple place. The entire room was made out of wooden logs that made it seem like some winter resort and the entire place was empty except for the clean white bed that he was lying on at the moment. The bed was located at the spot furthest away from the door, which just happened to be right underneath a window. All in all, a pretty decent place.

"Naruto-sama," The young girl called out gravely, bringing the blonde haired boy out of his thoughts, "My name is Christy Almanez and I know that this must be very shocking and disheartening but please... believe what I'm going to say."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Ok...? Go ahead."

Christy nodded determinedly, "The truth of the matter is... you've been in a coma for about two years now."

"-!"

Naruto's eyes widened exponentially.

It took him moment before he could muster up his voice again, "Wh-what? S-seriously, stop with the jokes," he grinned nervously, "Th-there's no way that can be true right?"

Christy sadly gazed down at the shocked boy, "I'm sorry, Naruto-sama, but all of this is true. Su-chan told me tell you this when you woke up, 'I've been keeping your body from de-dete-deteriorating with magic, but it will still take about five minutes for you to be able to move again.' She also told me to take you to her when you're finally able to move."

Naruto trembled as he tried to process all this new information, _'Wh-what? Why? I don't understand! Kurama could've easily woken me up! Wait... How could I forget? Kurama!'_

He closed his eyes and delved into his mindscape.

"OI, KURAMA!" He called out.

"..."

No one answered back.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as a pit of dread began to form in his stomach.

"O-OI! KURAMA! THIS AIN'T FUNNY, DAMNIT!"

"..."

Once again, nothing responded to his call.

The pit of dread grew a bit larger.

Curiously, he made his way to the place where the seal that held Kurama used to be. Only... instead of Kurama, he found an odd orb floating in Kurama's place.

The pit of dread continued to expand.

He walked towards the orb and reached his hand out to touch it.

"-!"

It was a vision. To be specific, it was the same dream that he'd seen just before he had woken up.

Still... it raised more questions than it answered.

 _'Was that a memory? My memory? Why is thing here instead of Kurama? Why have I been in a coma for the last two years? What the hell happened!? GAH, I CAN'T FIGURE ANYTHING OUT!'_

"Naruto-sama?" A voice called out from the outside, snapping him out of his frenzy and dispelling the expanding pit of dread, "I think five minutes have passed by now."

Naruto willed himself back to consciousness before he responded to her statement with a smile and brought himself up,

"Yeah, looks like that Su-chan of yours was right."

With a little bit of Christy's help, Naruto managed to get himself off the bed. It took a few seconds to steady himself but, once again with Christy's help, he managed to succeed.

Suddenly, the entrance to the room opened once again and a brown haired middle aged man with a goatee walked in,

"Christy, who are you talking with- NARUTO-SAMA!?"

"A-ah, hello," Naruto greeted, quite taken aback by the man's reaction.

"H-HELLO, NARUTO-SAMA!" The man greeted back, unable to keep his voice down. Tears started out of his eyes, "M-my name is Alfred Almanez, I'm the father of little Christy there. I-I have to say... I'm so glad... so glad that you're finally awake, Naruto-sama!"

Naruto grinned in response and abashedly rubbed the back of his head. The situation may have been unexpected and weird but this man had turned out to be a surprisingly nice guy,

"Hehe, thanks. Glad to be finally awake. But he way, your daughter told me that when I woke up, I had to go meet someone called Su-chan? Can you-?"

Alfred thumped his chest proudly, "Not to worry, Naruto-sama! I'll take you to her right away! ...It's probably best if you get changed though."

Naruto looked down and noticed that he was garbed in only a hospital gown.

"Ah, I didn't even notice. Do you have anything that I can wear?"

"There's nothing to worry on that front either, Naruto-sama! I have just the clothes for you!" Alfred assured as he rushed off.

Naruto's grin widened, "Thanks!"

* * *

"I gotta say, I like your style!" Naruto complimented as he followed Alfred down the street.

The reason for the compliment was the clothes that he had been given. An orange hoodie, blue jeans, and grey sneakers to top the entire thing off.

He was mainly talking about the orange hoodie.

"Of, course!" Alfred said as he proudly thumped his chest again, "We prepared that especially for you! The Orange Demon must wear orange after all!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, _'Orange Demon? I didn't know that that was one of my nicknames...'_

"Here we are!" Alfred loudly announced, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts.

"A hospital?"

The building in front of Naruto was modestly sized but the clean white exterior, large red cross, and the distinct smell of antiseptics made it abundantly clear that this place was a hospital.

Alfred nodded, "Yes. Susan is an incredibly skilled healer but her name is largely unknown since all she does these days is manage this hospital."

Naruto stretched his arms, resulting in several satisfying 'pops', before he grinned, "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

Alfred politely rapped on the door labeled as, 'Susan's Office'.

"Come in!" A feminine voice called out from inside.

Alfred opened the door and allowed Naruto enter before entering himself and closing the door behind him.

The room looked pretty simple. The walls were white and the only noticeable parts of the room were the window and desk located at the end of the room and the large grey couch facing the desk.

Once inside, Naruto caught sight of Susan sitting behind her desk and took a moment to take in her features. She seemed to be about the same age as Alfred, and, other than her white hair, seemed to look pretty much like an average forty to forty-five year old woman.

"Oi, Oba-san, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but your hair's kinda turned all white," Naruto pointed out as his greeting.

Susan's eye twitched, "I was born with this hair color, you brat."

Alfred laughed, "Haha! I can vouch for that! Susan and I have been friends ever since we were mere babes and I know it's surprising, but she actually was born with white hair!"

Naruto and Alfred took a seat on the couch opposite of her desk and chair, "That so? Well whatever, let's get to the point. Why'd you call me here, Su-chan?"

Susan raised an eyebrow, "Su-chan...? Ah, must be because of little Christy. I guess I should formally introduce myself, my name is Susan Riethard." She walked towards Naruto and stuck out her had, "Pleasure to meet you."

Naruto grinned as he shook her hand, "Heh, nice to meet you. My name is-"

Susan held up her free hand and interrupted him, "I already know who you are, Naruto Scarlet-san."

Naruto's eye subtly twitched, _'Oi, you're a little off there, Su-chan. It's Uzumaki, not Scarlet.'_

Susan let go off his hand and went back to her desk, "I'm sure that you have many questions, so please go ahead and ask away. We'll try to answer to the best of our ability."

Naruto's grin disappeared and a grave frown took its place, "Let's get straight to the point. Christy said that I've been in a coma for two years?"

Susan nodded, "That's completely true. It's been two years since Christy found you on the verge of death at the edge of our village. I-"

"Wait," Naruto interrupted as he held up his hand, "On the verge of death? Can you guys please give me the entire story?"

"Of course!" Alfred answered enthusiastically before the air around him turned solemn, "It went something like this. It was night and I was suddenly awoken by a large amount of smoke..."

* * *

Alfred quickly threw on his clothes, secured a thin cloth over Christy's mouth and nose, and rushed outside to see see what exactly was going on.

He looked to the West and spotted an orange glow coming from the distance and a column of thick black smoke heading towards them.

Alfred narrowed his eyes, _'That way is... Daffodil forest...'_

He felt Christy's quivering little hand tug on his arm, "Daddy, we're going to be okay right?"

Alfred gave his daughter a wide grin, "No need to worry, Christy. Papa's always here to protect you!"

Christy responded with a grin of her own, her fear almost completely dispelled by now.

A large commotion coming from the West end of the village caught his attention.

"Let's go, Christy!" Alfred exclaimed.

"Mm!" Christy determinedly nodded back.

Together, the father and daughter duo made their way through the streets of their small village and reached the West end in no time. Almost all the villagers were there and they were all staring at the orange glow in the distance.

"John!" Alfred called out as walked up to the group. Since Tenberry village was so small, everybody knew each other here, "What's going on!?"

John, a nondescript black haired forty year old man, looked back at the call of his name and caught sight of Alfred walking up to him, "Alfred! I don't know why, but Daffodil forest is on fire! It looks like the fire's about to die down soon but there's still a lot of smoke heading towards us!"

"Calm down!" Susan's loud voice echoed throughout the entire group, "Very rarely does the wind actually come towards us from the West! This, just now, was of those rare moments! All we have to do is suffer through a little bit of that smoke, and the wind will probably blow all that smoke back to the other side in no time!"

The group chattered among themselves,

"Oh yeah..."

"heh how could I forget?"

"Man, Susan-chan is so cool!"

"I was panicking so badly there!"

And finally the nervous air calmed down as the citizens of the village came to their senses.

"By the way, Alfred," John said, snapping Alfred out of his thoughts, "You didn't bring Christy with you?"

Alfred raised an eyebrow, "What're you talking about? Christy's right... here... WHERE'S CHRISTY!?"

The place that Christy had been occupying mere minutes ago was now completely empty.

Frantically, Alfred searched around, trying to catch sight of his daughter. Unable to spot her in the crowd, he started calling out to her,

"CHRISTY! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The villagers heard his yell and started talking amongst themselves,

"Eh, Christy's lost?"

"Ah, that naughty child..."

"We should help Alfred search for her."

"ALLRIGHT! SPREAD OUT, EVERYBODY!"

the group spread out and the air was filled with yells of 'CHRISTY!'. Alfred hopped over the fence which surrounded the village and tried to desperately search outside the village's boundary in case Christy had made her over the fence and had gotten lost in the dark,

"CHRISTY!" He tried again.

Suddenly, a voice called out from his left, "I FOUND HER!"

Alfred's head snapped up as he rushed over to the place where he'd heard the sound come from.

When he finally got there, he found most of the village crowding around a specific point. He hurriedly pushed through the crowd before he finally managed to make his way to his precious daughter.

He quickly scooped her up in a large hug, "Don't scare me like that Christy! You shouldn't run away like that!"

Christy cutely tilted her head, "Sorry, daddy, but I really want to see what that was."

She twisted her body in his arms to look the other way and pointed in front of her.

Curiously, Alfred put the young girl down and looked towards where she was pointing.

There, lying in front of him was a blonde haired boy groaning in pain and covered in blood and gashes. The boy honestly looked less like a human and more like a ragged chew-toy.

Alfred blanched and covered his daughter's eyes, "I-is he dead?"

"No," Susan answered as she made her way through the crowd and knelt down to examine the boy, "But he will be if we don't do something soon."

* * *

"Numerous third degree burns, numerous stab wounds through numerous vital organs, numerous broken bones, major impact to the skull, and much, much more," Susan finished for Alfred, "You were on the brink of death, yet... somehow, you managed to make it back. It still landed you in two year coma though."

"It was only after we had cleaned up your wounds that we finally recognized who you were, Naruto-sama!" Alfred said, "Consider this our thanks for saving us from the dark guild Devil Wings!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Dark guild? Devil Wings?"

Alfred's eyes widened, "You do not remember Naruto-sama!? It was around four years ago-"

"Wait, Alfred," Susan interrupted, "Do you remember where Fiore is, Naruto-san?"

Alfred laughed, "Of course he does, Susan! Don't make fun of Naruto-sa-"

"No," Naruto answered, "I have no idea what this Fiore thing is."

Susan grimaced, "What about Earthland?"

Naruto shook his head, "I have no idea what that is either."

Alfred's jaw dropped open, "N-Naruto-sama, could it be that you have lost your memories!?"

Susan clicked her tongue, "Tsk, I was afraid of this..."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, _'What is she talking about? Fiore?_ _Earthland? Dark guild? Devil Wings? Come to think of it, Christy mentioned that this Oba-san healed me with magic. Not chakra, magic. The last thing I remember is saying bye to Sasuke before he left for is journey of repentance... If I want answers, then I have to dig deeper...'_

"Hey, Oba-san, can you please get me a map of this country and a map of this world?" Naruto asked, _'If I'm right, then...'_

Susan reached into her drawer and spread out two maps in front of her, "Here, The one at your left is the map of Fiore and the one at your right is the map of Earthland."

Naruto walked towards the two maps and examined them,

 _'Like I thought... this isn't the Elemental Nations nor can I find it anywhere on the map._ _Something's wrong though... If this is a different world, then why do these people know my name? It's best if I say that I have memory loss. These people remember me, but I don't really remember them so it's not exactly a lie.'_

"I don't remember any of this," Naruto informed the other two people in the room.

Susan sighed before her eyes sharpened, "You can leave now, Alfred. I'll take it from here."

Alfred nodded, "Okay! Please take good care of Naruto-sama, Susan. Goodbye!"

With that, he left the room.

The two remaining people spent a few seconds in silence before Naruto opened his mouth and asked a question which had been bugging him ever since he had heard Alfred's story,

"Were you the one who healed me, Oba-san?"

Susan sharply nodded, "Yes. I can't heal with my magic, but I did have the power to keep your body in shape and your muscles from deteriorating. That's why you can walk so quickly after being on a bed for two years straight. You were still kept in Alfred's house most of the time though."

Naruto smiled widely as he gave the white haired woman a bow, "Thank you. Thank you for taking care of me. I seriously don't know where I'd be without you."

He raised his head and took a seat on the sofa again.

Susan shook her hand, "Don't thank me yet. I may have saved your life but, and I don't know why, but your magic core has completely disappeared. You no longer have the ability to use magic. I know that there are many mages that can't bear to live without their magic."

Naruto shook his head, "Nah, at least I'm alive. That matters way more than magic."

 _'Plus,'_ He added in his head, _'I don't even ever remember using magic or whatever, and my chakra's completely fine too, so I don't really care what happens to my "magic".'_

"Naruto Scarlet-san..." Susan called out gravely, "I know that Alfred idolizes you for saving our village, but... I absolutely can't agree with your methods."

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"You attacked dark guilds regardless of their circumstance, and not only that, but you also used to attack light guilds that everyone knew should be dark but didn't have the evidence to prove it," Susan continued, "You never killed any of the illegal mages, but the way you attacked them... most of those illegal mages almost died from life-threatening injuries. I know that you don't remember doing any of these things but... you're still the same person, even if you don't remember."

"..."

Naruto remained silent.

"But... you're still my patient and you still saved my village. Even though you're an S-ranked criminal, I still-"

"I'm a what!?" Naruto yelled.

Susan raised an eyebrow at his reaction, "A criminal? Why are you acting so shocked-" Realization dawned on her face, "Oh riiiiight... I forgot to tell you, you're an S-ranked wanted criminal known as the Orange Demon. Most of the world thinks you're dead though."

Naruto put his hands on his head and sunk to the floor, "I-I'm a wanted criminal? I'm so freakin' screwed! What do I do!? AHHHHHHH!"

Susan watched silently as the blonde haired boy's frantic yells increased in pace and intensity before suddenly, she covered her mouth and giggled.

 _'I had though that I would meet with some kind of heartless monster obsessed with his own sense of justice based on Naruto-san's reputation_ _, but... he doesn't seem like such a bad person now that I take a good look at him.'_

* * *

"...And, uh, sorry for having a giant panic attack in your room," Naruto apologized, bathed in the red light of evening.

Susan smiled and shook her head, "No need to worry, Naruto-san. I can imagine how you're feeling right now."

"I still can't believe that I'm a wanted criminal," Naruto murmured before his mood brightened up a bit, "At least they put me in S-class. Heh, just goes to show exactly how awesome I am.

"Actually, you're known as one of the weakest S-class mages ever, Naruto-san," Susan informed.

Naruto flinched, "S-seriously?"

Susan nodded.

"Damn it."

* * *

 _'They said that I've been in a coma for two years, but I'm still in my seventeen year old body, not to mention I have both arms again,'_ Naruto analyzed as he wandered the extremely rural streets of Tenberry. The roads weren't paved and the technology was limited to lighting and the like, but the people still seemed pretty happy here.

 _'I guess that means that my body was fifteen when it went into a coma. What happened two years ago?'_

Suddenly the vision sprang in his mind again. Specifically, the part where Kurama left him his warning.

 ** _'If you don't manage to find me before three years have passed...then you will surely die.'_**

 _'What was that vision anyway?'_ Naruto asked himself, _'Could that be a memory from the me in this world? Come to think of it, why am I not dead yet? With Kurama gone, I should be dead by now. Did Kurama do something? Nah, even if he did, I still wouldn't be able to survive long without him in my gut... or maybe, that's why he warned me! If I'm right, then that means that I only have one year left to find him since I wasted the other two years on a bed! Crap! I've gotta hurry!'_

He spun around and started running to edge of the village, only to stop in his tracks again,

 _'Wait, I gotta think this through... if I want to find Kurama, then I have to at least have the basic information about this world. It's probably best if I asked Oba-san. She seemed like she knew a lot.'_

With his plan set and his resolve hardened, Naruto made his way back to the hospital.

* * *

"Whoa!" Lucy exclaimed in surprise at the huge guild in front of her.

"Yep, Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Natsu welcomed with a wide grin.

"Aye, sir!" Happy added.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note**_ _ **\- I know that I'm also doing ' I Don't Need Chakra To **_**_Win! ' at the same time, but, for some reason, my interest shifted back into Fairy Tail again. The story and ending were kinda disappointing but the world and characters that Hiro Mashima has created is amazing. That's why I decided to come back to this franchise. Now, this does not mean that I'm abandoning _**_**' I Don't Need Chakra To **_**_Win! ', I've already created the entire storyline for that story so I'm not going to abandon it anytime soon. Keep in mind though, the storyline for _**_**' I Don't Need Chakra To **_**_Win! ' was completely planned out, but it's not the same for this story. I have the basic story for 'I'm A Wanted Criminal!?' but most of the events taking place in this story will be stuff that I came up with on the spot._**

 _ **PS**_ _ **\- I tried my hand at writing in first person but I can't really tell whether I did good or bad.**_

 _ **PPS - The OCs are not going to play a major role in this story.**_


	2. Pease Teach Me, Naruto-sensei!

_**Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto or Fairy Tail**_

* * *

"You're back," Susan dryly noted as she stared at the young blonde boy lounging on the same chair that he had been lounging on just a few hours ago.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly, "Hahaha, yeah... sorry."

"So?" Susan asked, "Why did you return?"

The air around Naruto turned serious, "A small part of my memory returned to me and, from what I can gather, I have to find a... buddy of mine before a year has passed. If I don't, then I'll probably end up dying."

Susan's eyes narrowed in curiosity, barely fazed by the prospect of death after seeing it occur so many times in her long history as a healer, "Dying...? Who is this... "buddy" of yours and why can't you live without him?"

"My buddy... is a giant nine tailed fox that's about a hundred times larger than Tenberry village," Naruto answered hesitantly, "From what I remember, I can't live for long without that fox's power inside of me. I estimate that I only have a year left... which is why I need to hurry up and set out to find him."

Susan eyes widened as she tried to comprehend his words, "Wh-wha... a hundred times larger than Tenberry village...?"

A few deep breaths later, she hesitantly nodded, "I suppose... that makes sense... kind of, but it still doesn't tell me why you've come back _here._ "

"It's 'cause I don't really remember how this world works," Naruto explained, "You were mentioning stuff like dark guilds and mages, and, to be honest, I have no idea what any of that crap is."

Susan sighed, "Fine. I'll give you the basics on mages, guilds and the council; that should be enough general knowledge for you to get by."

Naruto grinned, "Thanks, Oba-san!"

Susan sighed again, "Well, let's get started. First of all, mages are humans who can..."

* * *

"...And the royal family of Fiore stands above them all," Susan finished.

Naruto rubbed his chin as he reviewed all the information he'd just received, "So, like you said, most of the work involving mages is delegated to the council, right?"

Susan nodded, "Yes, it's the council that manages the guilds and mages. It's also the council that you personally denounced five years ago."

Naruto looked shocked, "I did that?"

Susan frowned, "Well, not publicly, no. But... you openly defied the council and destroyed the at-the-time light guild, Willow's Wind. You then proceeded to reveal the fact that the guild was actually running a slave racket that worked in conjunction with many dark guilds like Titan Nose and the like, and that they conducted business with the criminal underbelly of Bosco."

"Wait, then what I did was right!" Naruto exclaimed, "There's no way I would've just let those guys go, no matter what the damn council said!"

"I agree," Susan said, "And the council did too. While they weren't happy that you didn't listen to them, they were still ready to offer you a pardon if you simply turned yourself in, but..." She trailed off.

"But?" Naruto prompted.

"But... you didn't," Susan answered with a fair amount of hesitation, "I don't know what happened at the time but you refused to turn yourself in and started hunting down dark guilds without permission from the council. Not only that, but you investigated any light guilds under suspicion and, if you found any evidence of wrongdoing, then you recklessly destroyed them. You didn't kill anyone, but many people were beaten up so badly that they were put in a critical condition."

Naruto melancholically stared at the ground, "Yeah... I understand now. I understand what probably happened back then."

Susan curiously raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And pray tell, what exactly happened back then?"

Naruto sighed forlornly before he softly answered, "It's obvious... I got selfish and took the easy way out..."

Susan waited for the blonde haired boy to elaborate, but, once it became clear that he had no intention of doing so, she changed the topic, "What are you going to do now? You mentioned that you had only a year left to find your friend."

Naruto shook off his depressed mood and nodded seriously, "Yeah, I intend to head out now. Can you please come to the West end of the village with Christy and Alfred-san? I'll be waiting for you there."

Susan nodded, "Very well," She held up a hand, "wait here a second before you leave though," she said as she searched through her drawers.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Hm?"

"Found it!" Susan exclaimed before she walked up to Naruto and handed him black bag, "Here, take this."

"What's this?" Naruto asked as he examined the bag. It looked like a normal school bag, albeit it lacked any distinguishing designs and the like, but, other than that, the zippers and look suggested that this was just a normal school bag.

"It's a bag filled with toiletries," Susan informed, "Toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etcetera, etcetera. You're not going to travel while neglecting your personal hygiene, are you?"

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Hahaha, I was in such a hurry that I almost forgot about that."

Susan massaged her head with her hands, "What a dumb brat..." she mumbled.

* * *

"NARUTO-SAMA!" Alfred enthusiastically yelled as he ran up to Naruto who was standing in front of the border fence of Tenberry. The fences were made of wood and, despite being well worn, they still seemed pretty sturdy. Their height only reached till Naruto's knees and were quite easy for anyone to hop over.

"We have arrived Naruto-sama!" Alfred excitedly announced, only slightly panting due to running here all the way from home. His face took on a sad frown, "I heard that you were leaving!"

Naruto grinned, "Sorry, Alfred-san, there's something that I absolutely must do. Where're the rest? I wanted to-" He spotted Susan calmly walking towards them with an excitedly chattering Christy in hand, "-Ah, there they are."

Naruto greeted the two approaching females before Alfred moved aside and all three lifelong residents of Teaberry faced Naruto.

"So... I really wanted to say one thing before I left for my search..." Naruto said before he bowed deeply, "Thank you for taking care of me."

He raised his head and turned to look at Christy, "Thank you, Christy, for noticing me that night two years ago."

Christy blushed at his words and smiled, "It's no problem, Naruto-sama. Daddy told me about how you heroically saved this entire village before, I just did the same for you!"

Naruto gave her a wide grin before he turned to look at Alfred, "Thank you, Alfred, for housing me for two whole years."

Alfred one-upped Naruto's grin with a wider grin of his own, "Not to worry, Naruto-sama! It's just as Christy said, we were simply repaying the large debt that we owed you! That doesn't mean we won't help from here on though. Whenever you need help, don't hesitate to ask us; we'll gladly help you out!"

Naruto matched Alfred's grin and held out a fist. Alfred, easily catching on to what the blonde was waiting for, bumped the appendage with his own fist... after which, he shook violently in bliss.

Naruto turned to look at Susan, "Thank you, Oba-"

Susan held up her hand, "There's no need for that, you've already thanked me back in my office."

Naruto chuckled, "Heh, I thought you'd say something like that."

Susan let out a small smile and offered him a necklace with a scarlet colored gem attached to it, "Take this, you troublesome brat. You were wearing this when we found bleeding all over Teaberry two years ago. I had to remove it while healing you, but it's probably time I returned it to you."

Naruto tenderly picked up the necklace and carefully inspected the scarlet gem.

"You don't remember what it means to you, do you?" Susan asked after a period of silence.

Naruto shook his head 'no' and put the necklace on.

"I should probably tell you," Susan spoke up again, "There are multiple rumors that claim that an airship was spotted right on top of that huge forest fire two years ago. I don't know if that has anything to do with your search, but I for one think that a forest fire suddenly occurring in Daffodil forest, where the air is always quite humid, and you being brought to the edge of death at the exact same time is too coincidental to ignore. And, if I'm right and that's the case, then that means that that airship might have some connection to whatever happened two years ago."

Naruto put a hand on his chin and considered the thought for a second. Like a lightbulb, another thought sprang up in his mind, "That reminds me, what was the date when you found me two years ago?"

"June 20th," Susan answered, "It's July 5th right now. If, by one year, you meant starting from June 20th, then that means you have only eleven months to find your friend."

Naruto smirked, "I better take off then."

He turned around and waved behind him as he set off, "See ya!"

* * *

...Was what he said, but after two hours of walking, he realized that he didn't have a freakin' clue on which way to go. His plan of action had been to head West since he'd been found on the West side of the village two years ago, but West was a very general goal and didn't make the least amount of sense.

At least he'd narrowed down the direction from three others...

Hey, small victories.

Susan's words sprung up in Naruto's mind, _"I for one think that a forest fire suddenly occurring in Daffodil forest, where the air is quite humid, and you being brought to the edge of death at the exact same time is too coincidental to ignore"_

He scratched his cheek, _'Should I head towards that forest? Will there even be any evidence left after two whole years?'_

He shrugged, _'Worth a shot.'_

* * *

Twelve year old and blue haired Wendy Marvell was quite excited on this particular night and rightfully so; She'd finally been allowed to take a delivery quest!

That, however, did not mean that she wasn't nervous. Oh, she was nervous. Incredibly so.

But, her mind was already made up and there was no way that she was going to give up on this mission simply because of her insecurities!

"Wendy, you've been trembling for quite a while now. Are you sure you don't want to just go back?"

Oh, and Charle was there too.

Wendy made a determined face and resolutely shook her head, "This is my first delivery quest! I can't fail!"

Charle sighed, "Very well... just don't burn yourself out."

Wendy nodded.

The two Cait Shelter mages continued walking in silence and occasionally looked around in fear of the things that lurk in the dark.

It wasn't as if it was dark night, on the contrary, the full moon was actually shining pretty nicely. It was just that, even with the moon's light to light up their path, it was still night and the trees framing the path around them were doing a great job of covering the two small Cait Shelter mages with their long shadows.

Even though it was a pretty warm night, Wendy's shivering increased.

"Wendy, are you sure that you don't want to head back?" Charle asked concernedly.

Wendy shook her head, "We can't do that, Charle, the client is depending on us. Plus, even if we head back now, it will still take us about four hours to reach home again."

"I guess you're right," Charle reluctantly agreed.

Once again, a comfortable silence encompassed the two friends as they kept walking.

Suddenly-

 **"SKREEEEEEE!"**

A loud, inhuman shriek rang through the forest.

Wendy and Charle both stopped in their tracks and fearfully looked around.

"Wh-what was that?" Wendy asked meekly.

"I don't-" Charle began before she noticed a grey colored claw flying towards Wendy from above, "-Move!"

With absolutely no offensive magic to speak of, all Charle could do to save her friend was fly towards the little girl, push her out of the way and take the blow in her place.

"Gah!" Charle screamed in pain as her back was brutally sliced open.

Wendy, who had barely heard Charle's yell before being pushed to the ground, paled as soon as she turned back to see her friend lying on the ground bleeding profusely.

"Charle!" Wendy yelled out worriedly.

Charle barley managed to muster up the strength to speak,

"B-behind you..."

 **"SKREEEEEE!"**

This time, the shriek came from behind.

Wendy spun around in panic and found herself face to face with... a dragon?

No, while the beast's size was quite large, it was still too small to be a dragon.

 _'A-a wyvern?'_ Wendy asked herself, her mind barely functioning with the heavy pressure of fear disrupting everything there.

The wyvern looked like a miniature dragon and was covered in grey scales. It had two scaly wings on its back and was standing on four muscular yet scaly legs that each had incredibly deadly looking claws, further accentuate its frightening appearance.

The wyvern raised its right claw and Wendy, despite her fear, got into a fighting stance. It swiped downwards and, after a brief yet incredibly agonizing moment of pain, all she saw was darkness.

* * *

When Wendy came to, the first thing she noticed was that she was lying by a fire, the second thing was that she was lying on the ground, and the third was the sharp pain in her shoulder.

"You heal pretty fast," a mysterious voice commented from behind the fire.

Slowly but surely, Wendy carefully brought herself up to a sitting position and caught sight of the owner of the mysterious voice comfortably leaning against a tree.

It was a boy. An older boy, probably sixteen or seventeen, who had blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. The boy was dressed in grey sneakers, blue jeans and a tattered orange hoodie that looked like someone had haphazardly ripped out the bottom half.

"U-um do you know what happened? Charle was-" Wendy started asking before she noticed Charle sleeping beside her, wrapped in an orange bloodstained cloth.

"Is that Charle?" The blonde haired boy curiously asked as he pointed at the white cat.

"Y-yes," Wendy softly answered before tears started leaking out of her eyes, "I-I'm so glad... I'm so glad!" Her crying increased in volume, "I'm so sorry, Charle! I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you!"

The guilt she felt for not being able to protect her friend and the happiness she felt for both of them getting out from situation like that alive intertwined and created a melting pot of many different emotions. She cried, she laughed, she clenched her fists, she curled up into a ball, and, all the while, the blonde haired boy watched her without saying a single word.

* * *

It took quite a while for Wendy to calm down and straighten out her emotions but it happened. Once everything had settled, the blonde haired boy had urged her to follow him into the foliage.

"U-um, where are we going, um..." She trailed off once she realized that she did not know the boy's name.

"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto supplied helpfully.

"My name is Wendy, Naruto-san," Wendy introduced, "Wendy Marvell."

Naruto smirked, "Y'know, it's really weird for me to say my family name after my given name. From where I'm from, we used to introduce ourselves the other way around."

"So I would have to introduce myself as Marvell Wendy?" Wendy asked curiously, her voice still cracking and sore from all the crying and her eyes red and puffy.

"Yup," Naruto nodded.

The two walked a few more steps in silence before they broke the foliage and came across a small lake,

"We're here," Naruto announced.

"A lake?" Wendy asked with a tilt of her head.

"You looked like you needed some water to drink and wash your face with," Naruto explained, "I've already drank the water from this lake so know that it's okay to drink. Go ahead."

Wendy smiled at the blonde boy, "Thank you, Naruto-san."

Naruto grinned right back, "No problem!"

* * *

Once Wendy was done with washing her face and drinking some water, Naruto led Wendy back to the fireplace, where Wendy then proceeded to heal Charle.

 _'She looks tired,'_ Naruto noted to himself, _'That wound isn't too small, but it isn't too big either. Is it normal to get tired after healing a wound like that?'_

"Are you a good healer?" He asked as soon as soon as the light from Wendy's hands died down.

Wendy panted a bit and took moment to recover her breath and wipe the sweat off her face before she opened her mouth to respond.

"What do you mean, Naruto-san?" She asked, not quite understanding Naruto's question, "There are many type of healers."

"I meant that, are you good at healing ju-magic?" Naruto clarified, accidentally almost saying 'jutsu' instead of 'magic' in the process.

"I-" Wendy started before she was interrupted by a snide voice

"Obviously, you fool. Wendy is known throughout Fiore as the Sky Priestess," Charle said as she slowly got up and gently rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, "She's one of the only mages who can heal people with magic."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as the last part of Charle's statement caught his attention, _'So only a few 'mages' can use magic to heal people in this world...'_

Wendy's face lit up with a bright smile, "Charle! You're up!"

"You of all people know just how effective your magic is, Wendy; returning to consciousness is no problem when you're the one healing me," Charle replied warmly before she turned towards the blonde haired boy and pinned him with piercing glare, "And you, who are you and why are you asking Wendy a question like that?"

Naruto's eye twitched, "Oi, chibi-neko, I know you've just healed from being injured, but if you want me to kick your ass that badly, then I'll gladly do it."

Charle's glare increased in intensity, "You wish to fight? What a violent barbarian you are."

"You're the one who started insulting me as soon as you woke up," Naruto irately shot back.

Charle's mouth twitched at the accusation, "Well, you-"

"Please stop this, you two!" Wendy desperately pleaded.

The cat and blonde boy both looked at Wendy's desperate yet determined face, turned to glare at each other, and turned to look at Wendy's desperate yet determined face again.

They didn't stand a chance.

They both sighed and disengaged at the same time.

"Hmph, you're too trusting, Wendy," Charle reprimanded, "Did he even tell you what happened?"

Wendy pouted, "Don't be mean, Charle; It's obvious that Naruto-san saved us."

Charle gave Naruto a look filled with suspicion, "And is that what actually happened?"

"Oi, chibi-neko, stop giving me that weird look," Naruto said grumpily, "And yeah, that _is_ what actually happened. I saw Wendy here being attacked, so I rushed in to save her."

Charle's eyes narrowed.

Naruto turned to look at Wendy and raised an eyebrow, "By the way, why didn't you attack that thing with your magic or anything?"

Wendy blushed as she looked at the ground.

"Th-that's because... I don't have any offensive magic at all," she revealed, her voice barely audible by the end.

Naruto managed to hide his surprise well, "No offensive magic at all? And you still stood up to that thing even though you knew that?" He grinned, "You've got guts, kid!"

Charle didn't let what the blonde haired boy said slip by her, "And how would you know that?" She asked suspiciously, "Why didn't you save her when she was in the process of being attacked?"

Naruto's eye twitched at Charle's thinly veiled accusing tone, "I only saw the end, okay? Plus, it took a moment for me to judge the situation; I responded as soon as I could."

"Why are you so suspicious of Naruto-san, Charle?" Wendy asked meekly.

"It's because monsters rarely attack this road, let alone a wyvern," Charle informed, "That's why this mission had such a low difficulty level and that's why you being attacked by a monster here and then miraculously saved by a mysterious stranger is too coincidental for me to believe."

Wendy smiled optimistically, "I think it's just because we had some bad luck at first and then got some good luck!"

Charle sighed, "That's why I said that you're too trusting. You need to learn to suspect people."

"Monsters rarely attack this road?" Naruto interjected.

Charle narrowed her eyes even more, "I don't know whether you're acting or not, but yes. I made sure to ask many travelers about this road just to make sure."

"What's your quest?" Naruto asked Wendy.

"We have to uh, deliver a message to the mayor of Cocoria town," Wendy answered as brought out a paper from her pocket and showed it to Naruto.

"And that's it?" Naruto asked, all the while examining the paper for anything out of place (and so that he could actually get his first glimpse of a real request paper).

"Yes," Wendy nodded.

Naruto rubbed his chin, "Hmmmm..."

He returned the paper to the young girl, who neatly folded it up and put it back in her pocket.

"you know, I'm heading to Cocoria town too, wanna head there together?" Naruto asked.

"I-is that okay?" Wendy asked right back, "Won't we drag you down?"

Naruto sweat-dropped, "You don't think really highly of yourself, do you?" He grinned brightly, "Don't worry, it'll be fine! I can teach you some offensive techniques on the way too, ya know?"

"Off-offensive magic?" Wendy asked in surprise before she gave him troubled look, "I-I'm really grateful but I'm sorry, I don't want to learn any magic other than what my mom taught me."

"Don't worry," Naruto said, "I never said anything about offensive magic. By offensive _techniques_ , I meant kunai and shuriken throwing techniques. You at least need to know how to defend yourself, right?"

Wendy looked incredibly surprised, "Y-you would be willing to do that?"

Naruto tilted his head, "We're traveling together, right? I don't see why I would have a problem in teaching you something as small as that."

Wendy's eyes widened before she bowed as much as she could while sitting, "Thank you, Naruto-san, thank you very much!"

Charle disdainfully turned her head away, "Hmph."

"We should probably go to sleep now," Naruto said, "Your shoulder's still injured and it's still night; nothing good will come from heading out now."

"Y-yes, Naruto-san," Wendy agreed with a nod before she lay on the ground and tried to make herself comfortable.

"Since I've already had my rest, I'll keep watch," Charle announced as she brought out her wings and perched herself up on the branch of the tree that Naruto was leaning on.

"Whoa! You can fly!?" Naruto asked loudly, unable to hide his surprise.

He'd seen many different creatures before, from talking frogs to a giant nine tailed fox, but none defined the word 'unique' or 'weird' more accurately than a small cat who could talk and fly.

Hell, even Kokuo wasn't this weird and Kokuo was some kind of a strange mixture between a horse and dolphin.

"That is what my magic, **Aera** , does," Charle explained whilst showing off her wings, "It gives me the ability to fly."

"Th-that's not so awesome," Naruto insisted with a pout, "It's not like I'm jealous of you or anything!"

Charle gave him a dull look, "What are you, a tsundere?"

"Shut up!" Naruto said grumpily as he crossed his arms, "I don't miss being able to fly at all!"

"You used to be able to fly?" Charle asked curiously, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Naruto grumbled.

Charle raised an eyebrow, "You don't know? How do you not know what happened to your own technique?"

"More specifically, I don't remember," Naruto explained, his tone still sour, "I woke up just yesterday and found out that I've been in a coma for the last two years and that I don't remember anything before that."

"That's horrible!" Wendy exclaimed as she shot up.

"Is that why you were asking whether Wendy was a good healer or not?" Charle asked curiously, "Were you hoping that she would be able to heal your memory loss?"

Naruto snapped his fingers, "Oh yeah! That's why I asked her, but I completely forgot about that!"

Charle face-palmed, "What an idiot."

Naruto glared at the small white cat, "Oi, I can hear you."

"I know," Charle retorted.

"Shall I try to heal your memory, Naruto-san?" Wendy asked.

Naruto grinned at her, "Yeah, that would help a lot."

Wendy determinedly nodded as she got up, walked over to Naruto, and put her hands on top of his head. She muttered something and a blue glow enveloped her hands. Naruto felt as if he'd been wrapped in a warm blanket, and even though it was summer, the warmth still felt quite comfortable.

Five minutes later, Wendy collapsed to her knees. Her face was all sweaty, strands of her hair were stuck to her face, her entire body was trembling, she was panting heavily, and tears were leaking out of her eyes.

"I-I can't fill it!" She said between gasps, "I'm so sorry, Naruto-san, but I can't heal your memory!"

Her tears increased in amount, "Y-You saved me and trusted me and I... I couldn't even-"

Naruto panicked, "Ah-ah, don't worry about it! I'll just find another way! I have all the time in the world to find a cure to my memory loss!"

"B-but-" Wendy stuttered before she was interrupted again,

"Seriously, don't worry about it," Naruto said as he put a hand on her uninjured shoulder and grinned, "I already know that you're a great healer, it's just that my circumstance is very unique. This isn't just normal memory loss."

Wendy hiccuped and sniveled but at least her tears had stopped flowing, "R-really?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you yourself know just how good of a healer you are, which is why, I know that you know just how complicated my problem is," Naruto comforted, "Thanks for trying your best."

Wendy despondently looked at the ground, "I don't deserve thanks..."

"No one is capable of everything," Naruto lectured, "There will come times when you're incapable of solving the problem. This is just one of those times."

"What do you do when a time like that comes, Naruto-san?" Wendy asked shyly.

Naruto's grin widened, "I smash through the damn problem! If there's a problem that I'm incapable of solving, then I'll simply _become_ capable or get help! Either way, I don't give up!"

Wendy's eyes widened, "Naruto-san..."

"Let's go get some water," Naruto suggested warmly, "We'll go to sleep after that."

Wendy gave the blonde boy a weak smile and nodded.

"I'm coming with," Charle informed quietly.

* * *

"Naruto-san, please get up!" Wendy yelled for the seventh time.

It was six in the morning and Wendy and Charle had woken up an hour ago and had already conducted their daily hygienic rituals, but Naruto was still sleeping. At first Wendy had said that letting him sleep in for a few minutes would be fine, but, as time passed, they realized that there was no way that Naruto was getting up without outside help.

Unfortunately, they soon came to the realization that even outside help might not be enough. Even after seven tries, the blonde was still sleeping.

"We should just leave him there, Wendy," Charle suggested, "There's no point in having him accompany us."

"But, Charle, we can't do that!" Wendy protested, "We said that we would walk to Cocoria town together! Plus, what if that wyvern returns and attacks Naruto-san!"

Charle glared at the blonde boy's sleeping figure, "This person hasn't even told us what happened to that wyvern. Is it alive? Has it been killed? Wounded maybe? All we got was that he saved you and that's it. You do see where I'm going with this, right?"

"Charle! Naruto-san isn't like that!" Wendy exclaimed, "Plus, he even bandaged us up by using half of his hoodie! You're still wearing it!"

"Oh yes! Why would the culprit _ever_ help the victim?" Charle asked sarcastically, "I mean, there's _nooo_ such thing as throwing off suspicion, right? And, the only reason I'm wearing this makeshift gauze is because I have nothing else to wear; my dress is too tattered to be usable anymore."

Wendy puffed up her cheeks, "Don't be mean, Charle! I already told you, I trust Naruto-san."

"Why?" Charle asked.

Wendy shrugged, "I don't know... well, more like, I don't really know how to put it into words..."

"Try anyway," Charle commanded.

Wendy looked at the Blonde boy's sleeping figure, "I guess... Naruto-san just has this strange aura that makes me feel like I can trust him. Don't you feel it, Charle?"

Charle narrowed her eyes and, once again, disdainfully turned her head away, "Hmph."

Considering their discussion finished, Wendy turned back to Naruto and tried again, "Naruto-san, please get up!"

Charle sighed, "You're doing it wrong, Wendy. If you want to wake him up, then this is how you do it."

Charle flew over to Naruto, brought out her nails, and promptly started scratching him in the face.

"Gah!" Naruto yelled as he groped around to find the source of the problem.

"Get up, barbarian," Charle sternly suggested, "Or I'll keep scratching your face."

"I'm up! I'm up!" Naruto exclaimed as he jumped to his feet, inadvertently knocking Charle away, "Just stop!"

Charle got up and dusted her hand in a satisfied manner, "And that's how you do it."

"What the hell is wrong with you, you stupid cat!" Naruto yelled as he gently traced the scratch lines on his face, "Who's the violent barbarian now, huh?"

Charle shrugged nonchalantly, "It was the most effective method I could come up with to wake you up. Clearly normal methods were not working."

"What the hell are you talking about, Chibi-neko?" Naruto asked angrily, "If you'd just yelled at me to wake me up, I would've easily woken up!"

Charle glared at Naruto, "Yeah, we already tried that, Wendy called out to you eight times in fact. What do you have to say to that?"

The wind left Naruto's sails, "Eight times?"

Charle nodded sharply, "Yes, eight times."

Naruto turned to the young blue haired mage and apologized, "Sorry, Wendy." Before he angrily turned back to Charle, "That still doesn't give you the right to scratch my face!"

"Well, what other-" Charle began retorting before she was interrupted by Wendy,

"Please stop fighting, you two!"

Charle and Naruto glared at each other, but at least they had stopped arguing.

"Naruto-san, it is true that you were not waking up and that's why Charle was forced to use extreme measures," Wendy said.

Charle let out a small smile of satisfaction whilst Naruto slumped to the ground.

"But Charle, the method you used was too extreme!" Wendy continued, "Plus, Naruto-san already apologized while you didn't!"

Charle turned her head away with a, "Hmph!" as Naruto's energy returned.

"Heh, I knew I wasn't in the wrong!" Naruto said with a grin, "Take that you-"

"But, Naruto-san, you still haven't apologized to Charle for wasting her time waiting for you," Wendy interrupted, causing Naruto to freeze mid-boasting, "You both need to say sorry to each other!"

Charle and Naruto both briefly glimpsed at each other before they both angrily turned their heads away. They both turned to look at Wendy at the same time and noticed that she was still expectantly waiting for them to apologize to each other.

Once again, they didn't stand a chance.

"S-sorry," They both quietly mumbled out at the same time.

Wendy smiled in relief, "Thank you!"

Naruto sighed before he walked over to the tree that he was leaning on the night before and picked up his bag, "Well, I'll brush my teeth and clean myself in the lake, and then we can get going."

Wendy nodded cheerfully, "Don't worry, we'll be waiting for you here, Naruto-san!"

* * *

Twenty minutes later, once Naruto was done with brushing his teeth and cleaning his body, he returned to the campsite to find Wendy waiting patiently whilst playing with a flower and Charle tapping her foot impatiently with a dark look on her face.

"Ah, Naruto-san, you're done!" Wendy called out as she noticed the blonde haired boy emerge from the foliage.

Naruto stretched his arms, "Yep, let's get going!"

"Finally," Charle said, "It'll take about six hours to make our way to Cocoria town. It's best if we don't waste anymore time."

"Is there a time limit on this quest?" Naruto asked as the three of them set off.

Wendy nodded, "Yes, but the deadline is very far away; we have until July 10th to make the delivery."

Naruto rubbed his chin and nodded in understanding, "So, I'm guessing that the message isn't really that important," He clapped his hands together cheerfully, "Good! This means that we can spend some time training without worrying about delivering the message late."

"Eh? We're going to practice on the road?" Wendy asked.

"Yep, we'll walk for about an hour, then we'll take a break for around another hour to help you train," Naruto explained, "You probably won't be able to get very proficient at throwing kunai and shuriken in just five hours, but I can at least show you the basics and the practice methods. That way you can practice anytime you want, even after we've gone our separate ways."

Wendy nodded determinedly, "I understand, Naruto-sensei."

Naruto smiled in bliss at being called sensei... before he was brought back to Earthland, courtesy of a white cat dressed in an orange makeshift gauze.

"We cannot do that," Charle said.

Naruto's sighed as he prepared himself for another argument, "And why not?" He asked in a tone that suggested that he simply wanted to get this over with.

Charle's eye twitched at his attitude, "We can't do that because then it will take eleven whole hours to reach Cocoria town," She answered slowly, as if she was talking to an especially dumb person.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "So?"

Charle's jaw dropped open, " _So?_ What do you mean by " _so"_? It's eleven hours! We can't walk for that long!"

"I said one hour breaks every one hour, right?" Naruto said, "Those breaks will easily help regain your strength after a FREAKIN' ONE HOUR WALK!"

"THINK ABOUT WENDY, YOU IDIOT!" Charle yelled right back, "SHE'll BE WALKING FOR AN HOUR AND THEN SHE'll BE TRAINING FOR THE NEXT HOUR! THAT'S ELEVEN HOURS OF CONSTANT ACTIVITY!"

Naruto sighed as he pierced Charle with a tired look, "You know... you should really have more faith in your friend. If you keep Wendy pampered forever, then there will eventually come a time where you'll fall in trouble with no means to escape... and I'm not just talking about fighting."

Charle's eyes widened as she took a step back, "N-no, that's... that's not-"

Naruto's eyes sharpened, "Learn to rise above yourself! Learn to believe in yourself! If you don't, then you'll never get stronger!"

"..."

Charle looked away as Naruto kept staring at her before she took a deep sigh and turned her head back to meet his eyes again, "...Fine. I don't like this, but I'll go along with your plan for now."

Naruto smiled, "Thank you, Chibi-neko."

Charle turned her head away again, "Hmph!"

Naruto turned to Wendy, "All right, Wendy, let's get goi...ng" He trailed off as he took note of the fiery passion in Wendy's eyes and stance.

"Your speech got me really fired up, Naruto-sensei!" Wendy exclaimed fervently, "Let's get going! I can't wait to train now!"

Naruto grinned at her enthusiasm,

"OH! OFF WE GO!"

* * *

Lucy had had an extremely weird and tiring day yesterday.

Honestly, so many things had happened in such rapid succession, that she was _still_ trying to wrap her head around it.

The day had started of pretty well... actually, scratch that, more than pretty well. The day had started off pretty fantastic!

SHE'D GOTTEN TO JOIN HER FAVORITE GUILD, FAIRY TAIL! WHOOOO!

Things had only gone downhill from there.

A little boy called Romeo had gone up to the tiny Master of Fairy Tail (Makarov, he was called) and proceeded to beseech for his help. Apparently, his father had gone for a Vulcan hunting quest but had yet to return even though he should've been back long ago.

Surprisingly, Master Makarov had said, "No."

According to Master, helping Romeo's father, Macao, would only hurt Macao's pride.

He had promptly gotten sucker punched in the face by Romeo.

But still, Master would not budge on the matter.

Natsu didn't agree with Master though.

When Lucy asked the drawing card of Fairy Tail, Mirajane, about the matter, Lucy had received the story of Natsu and his dad.

Apparently, Natsu had been raised by a dragon and, for some reason, the dragon had one day simply up and disappeared.

Yes, a real life dragon. She had made sure to ask.

So yeah, it seemed like Natsu couldn't stand to see some other kid suffer the same fate, which is why he had rushed off to save Macao.

Moved, Lucy also followed Natsu to Mount Hakobe, the place where Macao had gone for his mission.

Anyway, long story short, the team of two (plus Happy) had managed to save Macao and managed to reunite Macao with his son, Romeo.

...Okay, so maybe the entire thing wasn't a downhill experience, but she was still pissed that no one had told her that it was almost always winter on Mount Hakobe!

But hey, at least she'd managed to a score an awesome house yesterday! It was clean, nice, held a lot of cool features, and-

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE!?" Lucy yelled at the pink haired boy and his blue cat that were definitely not supposed to be here.

* * *

"Naruto-sensei, are you okay?" Wendy asked as she worriedly stared at the normally cheerful blonde boy who was slumped in a depressed manner on the ground.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Naruto rasped out, "Just go practice... please."

Charle glimpsed at Naruto before she focused her attention on the hard at practice Wendy again, "Hmph, what a pathetic display, barbarian."

"How?" Naruto asked desperately, "How the hell is she so good at this!? thirty minutes ago, she'd never even touched a kunai in her life, and now she can hit the target nine times out of ten!"

The "target" was merely a circle carved onto a tree, but it served its purpose more than adequately.

"So?" Charle said uninterestedly.

"Do you know how damn long I practiced to get to that point!?" Naruto asked incredulously, "Seriously, how much of a damn genius is she!?"

Charle took a sip from her water bottle before she spoke, "Clearly, she's on a completely different level than you." She took another sip, "You used these "kunai" things to defeat that wyvern, right?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. Where're you going with this?"

"Honestly, once Wendy masters this kunai throwing technique, she'll probably be stronger than you. The only reason she lost to that wyvern, was simply because she had no offensive spells in her arsenal."

Naruto's eye twitched, "Oi, I'll have you know that I-"

"What are these things made of anyway?" Wendy interrupted as she picked up kunai, "they look like they're made from wood. Did you make them?"

Naruto's eye twitching increased in intensity at being interrupted, but he answered nonetheless, "Yeah, I made them. I carved only two of them before I met you guys, but I made around twenty more last night while you guys were sleeping. Typically they're made of metal, but, if it's sharp enough, wooden ones still work."

Charle's eyes widened, "T-twenty? In one night!?"

Naruto shrugged nonchalantly, _'Well, my shadow clones made most of them, but, technically, shadow clones are still me.'_

"You should probably become a craftsman or something," Charle suggested, "Why are you a mage?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto brushed off, "I have a question too; why doesn't Wendy just use her healing magic on herself? I mean, I get that she heals fast and that large scratch that she got from that wyvern has already healed by now, but healing herself with her magic would've spared her a lot of the pain and discomfort last night."

"She can't," Charle answered.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Hm?"

"She literally can't," Charle repeated, "Wendy can heal others with her magic, but she can't heal herself."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, "I see..."

 _'Is this the norm for healers in this world? Or is it just Wendy?'_ He asked himself, _'Why does her power work that way?'_

"Ten more minutes left before we have to leave again," Charle noted, "And this is only the first break. We still have four more breaks left."

Naruto nodded cheerfully, "Yep!"

"By the way, Wendy can already hit the target ten out of ten times now," Charle informed.

Naruto's jaw dropped to the ground, "I-I'm not jealous at all, okay? Okay!? OKAY!?"

Charle nodded sarcastically, "Sure."

* * *

Lucy was crying.

"He called me ugly!" She yelled indignantly.

"You're useless," Natsu said dully.

"Aye!" Happy added.

"That's not it!" Lucy protested, "You guys saw it too, right!? His sense of beauty's just retarded!"

Somehow, Natsu, Lucy, and Happy had teamed up and were currently on a mission that requested them to find and incinerate the book "Daybreak" from the Duke of Everlue's mansion.

Lucy had tried apply as a maid to try to gain access to the Duke of Everlue's library so that she could incinerate the book without any trouble, but the plan had backfired spectacularly. Mainly because the Duke of Everlue's sense of beauty was seriously retarded. He had taken one look at Lucy and instantly declared her as "ugly". He then proceeded to show off his five horribly deformed maids, claiming that they were the very definition of beauty.

"I'll never forgive that bastard!" Lucy yelled.

* * *

Once Naruto was sure that Wendy could hit the target ten out of ten times, he had proceeded to draw another, much smaller, circle inside the target to indicate the centre. Naruto was sure that hitting the centre would take a lot more time and practice to get right, but...

"She's hitting the centre six out of ten times now," Charle noted.

 _ **Critical Strike!**_

"Stop... please..." Naruto begged.

Surprisingly, Charle actually complied and the two individuals spent ten minutes simply silently watching Wendy repeatedly throwing her wooden kunai at the target and repeatedly picking them up after she'd run out. Rinse and repeat.

"Do you know any Magic?" Charle asked after a while.

Naruto shrugged, "Kinda."

Charle raised an eyebrow, "Kind of?"

"What I know is something similar to magic but it isn't the exact same thing," Naruto explained, "It _does_ the exact same thing though."

"What is it called?" Charle asked.

"Chakra," Naruto answered.

"Chakra?" Charle repeated, "I've never heard of anything like that..."

"That's 'cause it's basically "Magic" used differently," Naruto explained, "While the Chakra and Magic are produced differently and are used differently, they're essentially the same thing."

"Can you show me a technique using chakra?" Charle asked.

"Not now," Naruto said, "Right now, I can't use chakra whenever I want. I have to conserve as much of it as I can."

And it was true. Last night, Naruto had noticed that when he used his clones, a large amount of Kurama's chakra had been drained away. It made sense after all. Kurama's chakra was mixed in with his own, so whenever he used his chakra, Kurama's was taken with it too. This meant that the more chakra he used, the shorter his time limit to find Kurama got.

Charle narrowed her eyes, "Do you even have any techniques, or are you just lying to me?"

Naruto glared at the cat, "It's true, Chibi-neko! I really do have a lot of super awesome and powerful techniques!"

Charle's eyes narrowed further, "Really?" She asked disbelievingly, "Okay, let's go back to what you said at the beginning; you said that Chakra and Magic are basically the same thing, so why is it that I've never heard of anyone using Chakra?"

"Like I said, 'cause it's basically Magic," Naruto answered, "Seriously, Magic and Chakra barely have any differences. Chakra is essentially just pure Magic, any techniques that you can use with Magic are also useable with Chakra, and obviously, vice versa. The only differences are: where we get it from, the basic composition, and what happens if we run out."

And this was also true. Naruto had gone into sage mode last night and had noticed that technology meant for Magic could easily also be powered by Chakra and vice versa, just like with the techniques. He'd already analyzed Wendy's healing and noticed that any techniques meant to target magic could easily be used on Chakra too. An example being a technique that absorbed the enemy's Magic. If that technique were to be used on Naruto's chakra, then the result wouldn't change. The enemy would even be able to actually use the stolen Chakra, albeit very terribly due to inexperience. He didn't know why, but everyone in this world also had Chakra coils, even though no one used it at all.

"They sound quite different to me," Charle opined.

"It's 'cause you're hung up on the small details," Naruto said.

Charle "Hmph"ed but did not pursue the topic.

Another ten minutes passed in silence.

"She's not getting any better," Charle noted.

Naruto got up, "I know why."

He walked over to Wendy, who was preparing to throw another kunai, and simply watched her.

Wendy glanced at Naruto and felt her stomach whirl around a little at the close attention. She knew that the blonde boy had been watching and he was the one who had given her instructions at the beginning, but it was still a little nerve-wracking.

She shook her head a little in order to clear her thoughts before she sharpened her focus.

She readied her kunai, aimed it at the center of the circle, and... fired!

"Miss," Naruto predicted the instant she let go.

 _ **'Thunk!'**_

True to Naruto's prediction, the kunai missed the centre.

Wendy looked at Naruto and blushed embarrassedly at his wide amused grin.

"It's your wrist," Naruto explained, "Your wrist is too stiff."

He walked over to her, gave her another kunai, and helped her go through the correct motions.

"Here, like this," Naruto instructed, "Snap your wrist like this when you let the kunai go."

Naruto stepped back as Wendy put on a determined face and flung her kunai at the target, all the while making sure to apply the movements that she'd just been taught.

 _ **'Thunk!'**_

...And promptly hit way off the mark.

Wendy made a surprised and tearful face and turned to Naruto.

"Don't worry," Naruto comforted with a grin, "It takes a lot of tries to get it right. All you gotta do is keep practicing without giving up!"

Wendy passionately nodded, "HM!" and tried again.

 _ **'Thunk!'**_

"It landed inside the target circle, Naruto-sensei!" Wendy excitedly told Naruto.

Naruto's grin strained, "A-ah, I noticed. Keep trying your best!"

With that he made his way back to Charle.

"You look depressed," Charle noted.

"Two tries..." Naruto said melodramatically as he sunk to his knees, "Something that took me thousands and thousands of tries to master, she accomplished in only two tries."

"She didn't hit the centre yet though," Charle pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm _also_ talking about only hitting the target," Naruto clarified, "It took me thousands and thousands of tries just to hit the target, not the centre, just the target, and she did it in two! TWO! How the hell is this fair!?"

Charle smirked, "Just goes to show exactly how skilled Wendy is- oh, she hit the center!"

"How!?" Naruto asked incredulously after making sure that what Charle said was actually true, "That was only her fifth try!"

Charle shrugged, "Like I said, she's just better than you."

Naruto held his head in his hands, "This isn't fair..."

* * *

"Here," Lucy tiredly said as she handed a book labelled in bold black letters, "DAYBREAK" to a grey haired middle aged man, Kaby Melon.

"Wh-why have you brought this back to me!" Kaby asked surprise, "I thought told you to burn it!"

Lucy frowned, "It's not that hard to destroy. You can do it yourself, Kaby-san."

Kaby snatched the book away from her, "The I'll incinerate it. I don't even want to look at it!"

Katy turned away and was about to search for a lighter before Lucy started speaking again, "I understand why you cannot tolerate the existence of that book."

Surprised, Kaby turned back to Lucy while she continued, "It's to protect your father's pride. You're the sun of Kemu Zaleon, aren't you?"

Natsu and Happy both looked surprised.

Kaby's eyes widened, "H-how do you know?"

Lucy smirked, "Have you ever read this book?

* * *

Wendy was panting. Her face was covered in sweat and her hair was all disheveled. The target was getting harder to hit for some reason.

"She seems to be missing a lot more now," Charle noted as she observed Wendy's kunai-throwing practice.

"It's 'cause she's tired," Naruto explained before he cupped his hands over his mouth and raised his voice just enough so that Wendy would be able to hear, "It's okay to take a break now, Wendy!"

Wendy turned back to look at Naruto and gave him a determined look, "I'm fine, Naruto-sensei!"

She went back to practicing.

Naruto sighed, walked up to Wendy, and put a hand on her shoulder to interrupt her throwing.

Wendy turned her head to look at Naruto again, "Sensei?"

Naruto smiled, "Wendy, I know that I was the one who said to rise above yourself, but if you push yourself too hard, then you'll only end up burning yourself out. Take a break."

Wendy hesitantly let go of the kunai, "...Okay."

Naruto led Wendy back to where Charle was sitting and set Wendy down before sitting himself.

"Are you okay, Wendy?" Charle asked as she worriedly examined the blue haired girl's state.

Wendy smiled at the small cat, "Don't worry, Charle, I'll be fine."

Charle frowned, "If you say so..."

The three spent a few minutes in comfortable silence before Naruto spoke up, "Wendy, I have a question."

Wendy, her breathing now stable and sweat no longer dripping off her forehead, tilted her head and asked, "Yes?"

"When you were trying to heal my memory loss, why did you say, "I can't fill it,"?" Naruto asked, "I mean, does something have to be filled for my memory loss to heal or does your power work by filling something?"

Wendy's mood plummeted at the reminder of her failure but she answered nonetheless, "It's the former, Naruto-sensei. For some reason, your memory has been... "fractured", for the lack of a better term. I don't know what happened, but it seems like something must fill a gap that's been formed inside of you to heal your memory. I tried to fill it with healing magic, but the gap was too vast and it seems like it only accepts a certain kind of... "something". I don't know what that "something" is though."

Naruto rubbed his chin while he lost himself in thought, "Hmmm..."

"I have a question for you too, Naruto-sensei," Wendy said after a few more minutes of silence.

"Ask away."

"You said that you lost your memory, but you also said that back where you came from, people introduced themselves with their family names first and their given names second," Wendy recalled, "How do you remember that?"

Naruto felt a faint smile play across his lips, ' _She's sharp...'_

Charle narrowed her eyes at Naruto, "You mean that this barbarian lied about losing his memories?"

Wendy shook her head, "No, I'm pretty sure that Naruto-sensei has lost his memories, but I still don't understand how he remembered that one."

Naruto lightly thwacked Charle in the head, "Yeah, calm down, chibi-neko. Don't always be so damn suspicious. The reason I remember that little tidbit is because, even though I've lost my memory, some things are still stuck in my mind. The name-giving thing was one of them."

Wendy nodded, "I see."

Charle turned her headway and, "Hmph!"

Naruto sweat-dropped, _'What a troublesome cat... bird... something.'_

* * *

Today officially sucked!

Not only had Lucy not gotten any reward for the trials and tribulations she'd been through in the Duke of Everlue's mansion (because of Natsu turning down the reward), But Natsu had also found out that she was writing a book.

HOW EMBARRASSING!

Stupid Natsu and his stupid cat Happy! Why the hell did they not know what privacy was!?

More importantly, HOW COULD THEY TURN DOWN THE ONE MILLION JEWEL REWARD!?

But... she guessed it was kinda fine since she'd managed to help Kaby get back the last memento left by his dad.

And they'd managed to put that corrupt bastard, the Duke of Everlue, in jail as revenge for hurting one of her favorite authors, Kemu Zaleon.

...Okay, maybe today didn't suck after all...

Natsu still needed to learn the concept of privacy though.

* * *

"For our final break, we're going to get started on something I like to call, "Hitting the Targets While Moving!"," Naruto said.

Charle and Wendy both sweat-dropped.

"You suck at naming," Charle bluntly said.

Naruto's eye twitched, "You wanna go, shorty? I'll beat your ass to a pulp!"

Charle rubbed her forehead tiredly, "I was right, what a barbarian you are."

Naruto grit his teeth and slowly raised his fist, but Wendy interrupted him before her could do anything,

"So, um, I just have to hit a target while moving, right?"

Naruto instantly put his fist down and nodded excitedly, "Yep! I've drawn a target on every other tree, and there are five targets in total. What you have to do is, get a running start and hit the centre of all the targets while running at full speed. Simple!"

Wendy clenched her fists and made a determined face, "I-I'll try my best!"

Naruto grinned, I know you will!"

* * *

"I'm impressed, it's only been thirty minutes and Wendy can already hit all the targets," Charle noted, "Although she rarely hits the centre."

"Obviously, she's _my_ student after all," Naruto preened himself.

Charle raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Wendy, "That was a different reaction than what you normally have."

Naruto smiled introspectively, "I don't know... more than jealously or disbelief, there's another feeling that's completely overtaken them."

Charle's eyebrow climbed higher, "What feeling?"

Naruto shrugged after a moment of thought, "No idea."

Charle stared at the blonde boy before she turned back to Wendy's training.

Naruto too turned back to observe Wendy's training and his smiled morphed into a happy one,

 _'She might be an even larger genius than Sasuke... Ha! Take that, Sasuke!'_

He jubilantly fist-pumped.

Charle glanced at the blonde boy from the corner of her eye and sweat-dropped,

 _'What a strange boy...'_

* * *

The group of three had packed up and had been walking for around fifty minutes now, the sounds of chatter and the chirping of insects and birds accompanying their journey.

"...You were taught by a dragon?" Naruto asked surprised.

Wendy nodded with a nostalgic smile on her face, "Yup! She's very big and has white scales. She's a very gentle dragon!"

Naruto looked excited, "Whoa! Can you take me to meet her sometime? I've never seen a dragon before!"

Wendy's expression became downcast, "She... left. I don't know why, but she just left one day."

Naruto put an arm around her and confidently said, "Don't worry! I'm sure that you'll find her one day!"

Wendy gave Naruto a questioning look, "How did you know that I was searching for her?"

Naruto chuckled, "Heh, my silly little disciple. I already know that you won't let something important like this go."

Wendy sadly looked at the ground again, "But... what if I don't find her?"

Naruto grinned and leaned close to her, "If you both truly loved each other, then I'm sure that you'll be able to find your way back to each other."

"But I'm just one person searching the entire world, how will I ever be able to find her?" Wendy asked in a depressed manner.

Naruto's grin widened, "That's where your friends come in! If you can't accomplish a task yourself, then there's no shame in asking for help. There's no doubt in my mind that you'll be able to find your mother one day, I promise. And I never break my promises!"

Wendy smiled at Naruto's confidence, "Thank you, Naruto-sensei!"

"We're here," Charle announced as she pointed at the wooden gates of Cocoria town about a hundred meters ahead of them.

The gates were large, about one-third the size of Konoha's gates, and were surrounded by large grey walls that protected the city from outside dangers. The walls didn't look like they were recently erected but they didn't look too worn down either. In front of the gate, there stood two guards dressed in the standard steel armour and helmets that covered their face and signified that they were rune knights.

"Oh!" Wendy put her hands on her mouth and a made a face of surprised realization, "I can get into the city since I'm a guild member of Cait Shelter, but what about you, Naruto-sensei?"

Naruto easily waved off her concern and flashed her an unconcerned grin, "Don't worry, we'll figure something out when we get there."

Charle face-palmed, "You understand that without identification you won't be able to enter the city, right?"

Naruto waved his hand in from off his face as if he were shooing away a fly, "Like I said, don't worry. If I can't walk through the front gate, then I'll simply find another way in."

Charle glared at the blonde haired boy, "And how exactly do you propose to do that?"

Naruto grinned enigmatically, "I have my ways."

The rest of the walk to the gate was spent in silence after that.

"Halt," one of the two rune knights said in a bored voice that sounded like a twenty to twenty five year old male's, "Identification please."

"Uh, um, I'm part of the guild Cait Shelter," Wendy shyly stated.

The Rune knight nodded unenthusiastically, "Please let us scan you then," he took out a device that looked like some sort of gun with a wide muzzle that held a lacrima inside of it and a screen right where the hammer was supposed to be.

He aimed it at the young girl and pressed the trigger. The gun _'beeped'_ at the same time that Wendy's guild mark began to glow.

He looked at the screen, "Cait Shelter, huh? Never heard of it, but the scanner recognized it, so I guess it's fine."

"Is that your pet?" He asked as he nudged his head at the small white cat.

"No," Charle sharply responded, making the Rune knight take a step back in shock, "And I am perfectly capable of speaking."

"O-oh, I apologize," The Rune knight said after recovering his posture, "I'll scan you too."

He aimed the scanner at the cat and pressed the trigger again.

"Also Cait Shelter, I figured," The Rune Knight said.

The Rune Knight turned to the other Rune Knight who was sitting on a round table behind him.

"Did you register them?" He asked.

"Yep, all done," The other Rune knight, who sounded distinctly female, replied.

The male(?) Rune knight turned back to the group of three and took in Naruto's appearance,

"Dude, what happened to your shirt?"

Naruto laughed sheepishly, "Hahaha, long story."

The Rune knight shrugged, "Okay, let me just scan you too," He aimed his scanner at Naruto and before Naruto could say anything, the scanner _'beeped'_ again.

The blonde haired boy felt a slight tingle on the middle of his back as the Rune Knight started talking again, "Fairy Tail, huh? What's a Fairy Tail mage and a Cait Shel- I mean two Cait Shelter mages doing together?"

Wendy and Charle were quite surprised by this new revelation and, while Charle was able to hide her's well, Wendy was a different story.

"Eh? Naruto-sensei, you're from-" Wendy started asking before Charle suddenly interrupted her,

"Wendy and I are here for a quest while Naruto here is simply accompanying us."

The Rune Knight looked a little confused at Wendy's reaction but let the matter drop, "Okay," he took the piece of paper from his colleague and gave it to the group of three, "Please write your full name here and write the purpose of your visit here."

The three filled out their information in the respective areas indicated and walked through the gate, into the city.

The Rune Knight behind them took a look at the paper and scratched his helmet, "Y'know," He said to his colleague, "I could've sworn that I'd heard the name 'Naruto' before..."

Charle's sharp ears did not miss this exchange.

* * *

The three (yes, even Charle) admired the town as they wandered through the streets.

The town was a complete opposite of Tenberry. It was large, had paved roads, buildings made of concrete, and lacrima lighting just about everywhere.

"Woah," Naruto said, unused to the unfamiliar architecture. He was about to walk off and explore before Charle stopped him.

"That man said that you were from Fairy Tail," Charle said.

Naruto turned back to the two Cait Shelter mages and raised an eyebrow, "That's a guild, right?"

Wendy nodded excitedly, "Yes! But it's not just any normal guild, it's known as the number one guild in Fiore!"

Charle narrowed her eyes as a familiar thought tried to make itself known in her brain. It was _there_ but she simply couldn't grasp the thought fully.

The blonde haired boy and the young blue haired girl continued chatting, oblivious to Charle's thoughts.

 _'Naruto... Fairy Tail... the Rune Knight's words, "I could have sworn that I'd heard the name Naruto before"... Why can't I put a finger on this thought?'_

"You okay, chibi-neko?" Naruto asked curiously, snapping Charle out of her thoughts.

Charle nodded firmly and answered, "Obviously. I was just planning our next move."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Don't you have to go to the mayor to finish your mission?"

Charle glared at Naruto, "Normally, that would be the best course of action, but we can't do that right now."

"Eh? Why?" Naruto asked.

"Look at our clothes, you idiot!" Charle angrily pointed out, "How can we go meet the mayor like this!?"

Naruto laughed sheepishly and looked down at his clothes, "Hahahaha, I'd completely forgotten about that! Sorry."

Charle sighed, "Let's just go. I'm sure that we'll find a clothing store somewhere around here."

* * *

It took around twenty minutes of aimless walking and asking directions from strangers, the majority of which were creeped out from Naruto's clothing, before they were able to find a decent clothing store.

Just as the group of three were about to walk in, Naruto stopped.

"You guys go, I'll wait here," he said.

"What's wrong?" Wendy asked worriedly.

Naruto blushed a bit, "I just remembered, I... don't have any money with me," He hesitantly informed, his voice barely audible by the end.

Wendy and Charle both blinked in disbelief before Wendy smiled warmly, "Don't worry, Naruto-sensei, I'll buy a shirt for you. I have more than enough money."

"A-ah, there's really no need, I'll just-" Naruto started before he was interrupted by Wendy.

"Please, Naruto-sensei! Not only did you save us, but you also taught me kunai throwing techniques! I want to do something for you as well!"

Naruto looked surprised by the intensity shown by the usually timid girl before he grinned warmly, "I guess all I can say is, thanks."

Wendy nodded happily as she led the other two inside. She proceed to walk to the counter to talk to the store clerk while the other two stayed behind and glanced at the collection of different clothing.

"By the way, did you manage to kill that wyvern?" Charle asked curiously.

Naruto nodded, "Yup, I-"

Suddenly, he stopped mid-sentence with a surprised look on his face.

"Barbarian?" Charle asked, a little bit of worry leaking into her voice.

Naruto grinned as he looked down at Charle, "Sorry, I was just surprised at how expensive this plain shirt is."

Charle's body loosened as sudden tension left her before she glared at the blonde haired boy, "Don't get distracted from a conversation so easily! It's incredibly rude!"

"Sorry," Naruto apologized with a disarming smile, "I was telling you about the wyvern, right?"

Charle nodded grumpily.

"Right, so the first kunai that I threw was useless because of how durable that wyvern thing was, but I figured out in no time that the eyes and neck were its weak points. Even wooden kunai, like the ones I carved, pierced through those areas easily."

Charle nodded, "The throat and eyes, huh?"

Naruto grinned, "Yup."

"Charle," Wendy began as she walked up to the two, "I talked to manager and she said that she has a selection of clothes your size that you can choose from since people come here all the time to buy clothes for their pets."

Charle nodded, "Thank you, Wendy. I'll go talk to her right now." With that, she made her way to the store manager.

"Excuse me," Charle called out.

The brown haired middle aged looking store manager looked down at Charle and gently smiled, "I know that that young girl said that you could talk, but hearing it first-hand is still quite surprising."

Charle nodded, "Yes, I get that a lot."

"I assume that you're here to view our selection of clothes," The manager said, "Their all laid out in the changing room, please pick out the one that you like best. They are all priced the same."

"Thank you," Charle said as she made her way to the changing room.

Inside the changing room, she found around four different outfits. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the plain shirt and blue skirt; the other outfits were simply too flashy for her.

Her ears twitched as she picked up Wendy's cheerful voice, "What's your favorite color, Naruto-sensei?"

Honestly, wasn't she too easygoing with that man? Even around her and in the guild, Wendy acted with more reserve than she was doing now.

Well... She couldn't blame Wendy, she too was unintentionally relaxing around that boy. She didn't know why, but, for some reason, that boy simply made people comfortable around him.

But... his face was also setting something off in her head. She didn't know what, but there was something there. Something she simply couldn't recall.

 _'Naruto... Fairy Tail... the Rune Knight's words, "I could have sworn that I'd heard the name Naruto before"...'_

These were clues. Clues that made the picture clearer and clearer. If she only had one more clue, then she would be able to pinpoint this memory or feeling or whatever it was.

"Orange," she heard Naruto answer, "My favorite color is orange."

"Orange?" She heard Wendy ask, "But you wear a scarlet necklace though?"

"Yeah," She hear Naruto answer, "I don't remember what this used to mean to me, but the person who found me and healed me from my coma said that it belonged to me."

 _'Orange..._ _Naruto... Fairy Tail... the Rune Knight's words, "I could have sworn that I'd heard the name Naruto before"..._ _scarlet... scarlet... Scarlet!'_

"-!"

A shadowy male's figure cloaked in an orange haori with black flames licking the bottom, flashed into her mind.

 _'The Orange Demon, Naruto Scarlet!'_

She quickly threw on the clothes she'd chosen and rushed outside, "Wendy!"

"Charle?" Wendy asked midway though picking up an orange shirt, curious at Charle's sudden outburst.

"I..." She was about to tell Wendy about the blonde haired boy's true identity but barely managed to stopped before she could even start. Naruto Scarlet was a criminal, so who knew what he would do if his identity was exposed. Not to mention that... she couldn't bring herself to see the cheerful blonde haired boy jailed or killed for crimes that he didn't even remember committing.

"S-sorry for bursting out like that, I just felt a strange foreboding chill," Charle said.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at her statement, a fact that Charle did not miss.

 _'D-does he know? Did he fool Wendy's Healing Magic?'_ She thought frantically, _'The way he's narrowing his eyes... he knows something...'_

"A foreboding chill?" Wendy asked innocently.

"It's probably nothing," Naruto said as he examined the shirt that Wendy was holding, "This is the shirt you wanted me to try right?"

"Charle?" Wendy asked, unwilling to let the matter drop so easily.

 _'The way he's dismissing my claim... like I thought, he really does remember everything... I should be careful and expose him in a much more public place filled with Mages and Rune knights later,'_ Charle planned before flashing a calm look at Wendy, "Don't worry, Wendy. Naruto's right, it really was nothing."

Wendy looked hesitant to believe her, "If you say so..."

Charle nodded firmly, "I do."

Wendy smiled, "Okay, I'll believe you," she said before she turned to Naruto and offered him an orange shirt which, unknown to the any of them, had the exact same design and colors as the shirt that Naruto would go on to wear when he entered his thirties and became Hokage in the Elemental Nations.

"Okay," Naruto said cheerfully, "I'll go try this on!"

Two minutes later, Naruto sauntered out of the changing room with his new shirt on.

"How does it look?" He asked as he struck a pose.

"You look great, Naruto-sensei!" Wendy praised cheerfully.

Naruto grinned and scooped her up in a hug, "Aw, you're the best disciple a teacher could ask for!"

Wendy blushed at the action, "N-Naruto-sensei!"

Charle kept a close eye on the proceedings to make sure that Naruto wouldn't do anything suspicious.

Naruto put the young girl down and flashed her an incredibly large and toothy grin, "Thank you, Wendy-chan!"

Wendy blushed at the thanks and looked at the ground before mustering up her courage and aiming a happy smile at Naruto, "You're welcome, Naruto-sensei."

Charle, even though she was suspicious of Naruto, could not help but smile at their interaction.

"Now it's your turn, Wendy," Charle reminded.

"I've already selected mine, Charle," Wendy responded as she walked over to a rack and picked out a red top, black skirt, and black stockings.

She walked into the changing room, and, after about two minutes, timidly walked out wearing the outfit that she'd chosen.

"H-how do I look?" Wendy asked shyly.

Naruto grinned and gave her a thumbs up, "I'm not really the best at fashion, but I think it suits you!"

Wendy smiled brightly and turned to Charle,

"You look good, Wendy," Charle complimented.

Wendy's smiled widened as Charle turned around and walked towards the Cash Register, "Now let's pay for the clothes and leave."

Wendy brightly nodded and followed Charle, "Okay!"

* * *

Naruto stretched his arms as the group of three walked out of the shop.

"Sun's setting," He noted as they aimlessly walked down the wide street, "We better hurry to the mayor."

Wendy and Charle nodded.

"We should probably ask for directions," Charle suggested, "I'm pretty sure almost everyone in this town knows where the mayor lives."

Naruto suddenly stopped, "Hey, Wendy, how many kunai do you have on you?"

"T-twenty, I think?" Wendy answered, confused by the sudden change in topic, "You said that you had the other two, Naruto-sensei."

Naruto smiled, "Good, that should be more than enough."

Charle raised an eyebrow, "Enough? Enough for wha-?"

Before she could even finish, a grey blur snatched Naruto away.

"S-sensei!?" Wendy yelled in surprise as she looked upwards, "A wyvern!?"

There, in the scarlet sky, was a wyvern carrying Naruto from the shoulders and flying upwards.

The citizens all created a giant circle around where the wyvern was before and looked up at the monster with surprised looks on their faces.

"A-a monster?"

"How did it get in the town!?"

"What do we do!?"

"Look! It's carrying a person!"

The wyvern kept climbing higher and higher before it let the blonde haired boy go.

"Naruto-sensei!" Wendy yelled in panic.

Once the wyvern dropped Naruto, it flapped its wings and flew towards the boy at high speeds.

"Wh-what's it doing?" A citizen asked fearfully.

"You blind? Obviously it wants to slash that guy up while he's falling!" Another citizen answered.

"Wh-what should I do," Wendy asked fearfully, tears leaking out of her eyes.

Charle clenched her fists and grit her teeth as the moments she'd spent with the blonde haired boy flashed through her mind,

They had argued more than a few times,

 _"Oi, chibi-neko, I know you've just healed from being injured, but if you want me to kick your ass that badly, then I'll gladly do it."_

They had apologized,

 _"S-sorry.'_

They had conversed,

 _"It's 'cause you're hung up on the small details."_

He was an idiot, obnoxious, loud, annoying, violent, a wanted criminal, and...

 _"Thank you, Charle."_

...He was her friend.

"Save him, Wendy!" Charle yelled boldly.

"H-how?"

 _"Right, so the first kunai that I threw were useless because of how durable that wyvern thing was, but I figured out in no time that the eyes and neck were its weak points. Even wooden kunai, like the ones I carved, pierced through those areas easily."_

"The neck and eyes!" Charle ordered, "Those are its weak points!

"B-but I can't hit moving targets too accurately yet!" Wendy said timorously.

"It's moving right towards you, Wendy!" Charle yelled, "It isn't moving to any side, it's heading towards you! The target is simply getting bigger!"

"B-but Naruto-sensei is in the way! What if I accidentally hit him!?" Wendy yelled insecurely.

Charle activated her wings, flew to Wendy's eye level, grabbed her face, and stared her in the eyes,

"Remember what Naruto said: _learn to rise above yourself! Learn to believe in yourself! If you don't, then you'll never get stronger!_ "

Her voice became softer, "I know you can do this, Wendy!"

"I..." Wendy looked back up in the sky and spotted Naruto rapidly falling towards her. Suddenly, he turned, smiled and looked her in the eyes.

Wendy didn't know how or why she could understand what he was trying to say with just a simple look, but... somehow, she did.

 _'I have faith in you.'_

"I'll do it! Make sure that Naruto-sensei doesn't fall to the ground, Charle!" Wendy said confidently as she pulled out two kunai.

Charle smiled determinedly, "You got it!"

* * *

Naruto was falling.

Oh, and a wyvern was chasing him with the intent of slashing him to pieces.

He wasn't paying attention to any of that though. Dealing with the wyvern was Wendy's job, and he had full faith that she would be able to complete it.

The falling part he could easily handle. Sure, a fall from such large height would damage him some, but it wouldn't be nearly enough to put him out of commission... probably.

No, he had a different focus in mind.

Two kunai flew by him and struck the wyvern above him, eliciting a ear-splitting,

 _ **'Skreeeeeee!'**_

Naruto winced as he scanned the crowd of civilians.

All the civilians were covering their ears and watching him fall... except for one black haired man.

This certain black haired man was calmly and slowly slinking away from the crowd as naturally as possible.

Too bad, _'Found you!'_

He took out the two kunai hidden in his jeans and fired it at the black haired man.

The black haired man barely noticed the kunai in time; just as they were about to strike him, he dodged to the side and turned to look at Naruto.

Naruto grinned and waved at him.

The black haired man's eyes widened as Naruto felt himself getting yanked to the air by the back of his shirt.

He curiously looked at his back and spotted a white cat in a white shirt and blue dress with wings sticking out of her back, carrying him,

"Charle? How damn strong are you?" He asked incredulously.

"Shut up, barbarian! You better thank Wendy and me for this later!" Charle yelled.

"Thanks, but before you set me down, take me to that black haired man who's trying to run away, as fast as you can. Oh, and try to fly low enough so that I can pick up my kunai."

Curiously, Charle did not argue and did exactly as Naruto said.

"Take this!" Naruto yelled as he picked up his kunai and threw them at the fleeing black haired man.

The black haired man stopped, turned, and plucked the two kunai straight out of the air.

"Set me down, Charle," Naruto ordered seriously, "And fly away right after that; you might get caught in the crossfire."

Charle nodded and set Naruto down about five meters away from the black haired man before flying away.

Now that Naruto could see him up close, the black haired man actually looked quite handsome. He had straight, short, and silky black hair, sharp grey eyes, a sharp nose, a tight jaw, thin lips, and a pale complexion. If Naruto were to guess, he looked like his age was from somewhere between twenty-five to thirty. He had on a black unzipped bomber jacket on top of a white T-shirt and black pants over black shoes.

"You... really like black, don't you?" Naruto asked.

The black haired man smirked and crushed the two kunai in his grip, "Yes, it's just like with you and orange, Orange Demon."

Naruto shrugged, "Touché."

The black haired man narrowed his eyes, "How did you know that I was the one that sent the wyverns?"

Naruto grinned, "I didn't. Not at first anyway. I first started suspecting that the attack on Wendy wasn't just a random occurrence when Charle, the small white cat, said that monsters rarely attacked the road to Cocoria town. Of course, that could have just been one of those rare occurrences, so I simply kept the suspicious on the back of my mind."

"So how did you-?" The black haired man impatiently asked, before he was interrupted by Naruto.

"However, I was sure that at least a person was behind the wyvern attacks when I sensed your killing intent from in the clothing store," he pointed a finger at the black haired man, "You're good at hiding yourself, but you're terrible at hiding your killing intent."

The black haired man's smirk became increasingly forced, "But that would've only told you that _someone_ was behind the wyvern attack, not that _I_ was!"

Naruto put his finger down and nodded, "Yep, but since I sensed your killing intent, that meant that you were close and ready to attack. So, I told Charle your wyvern's weak spots and made sure that Wendy had enough kunai to kill the next wyvern that would attack and simply waited for _you_ to reveal yourself to _me_."

The black haired man's smirk had completely disappeared by now and in its place was a full blown scowl, "How did you know that I would attack with a wyvern again?"

Naruto grin became a smirk, "Because you attacked Wendy. Wendy's only twelve, so I'm pretty sure that she hasn't pissed off too many people. The only reasons that I can think of for you to attack Wendy, is, A: You want to kill her because she's the Sky Priestess, or B: You want to kill her because of the message she's carrying for the mayor. But option B honestly didn't make sense to me. If the message was that important, then why was the quest ranked "easy"? Then it struck me, what if the quest was ranked "easy" in order to fool the people who were after this message into thinking that this message wasn't really that important? If that assumption was true, then that means that this problem was something political or something, which meant that you couldn't afford to make Wendy's death look deliberate. If you did, then the mission Wendy was on would be thoroughly investigated by the government, and you would be put in even more danger. A wyvern attacking a twelve year old girl would be pretty strange, but not as strange as a criminal attacking a twelve year old girl."

The black haired man's scowl darkened, "You made some pretty large leaps in logic to get to that conclusion."

Naruto shrugged, "Well, yeah. It's not like I _knew_ that all this would happen. It was all just a guess. I gave Charle the wyvern's weak points not because I knew that a wyvern would attack, but because it was a possibility. Same for Wendy. I didn't ask Wendy whether she had enough kunai so that she could kill the wyvern which would attack us, I only asked her so that she had a weapon to defend herself with. I'm not that good at planning ahead, my only plan at the time was to keep my guard up. It's only when the wyvern attacked that the puzzle pieces fit into place."

The black haired man glared at Naruto before his expression eased up and he chuckled, "So you're saying that everything that happened, you came up with on the spot?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep."

"You think fast on your feet, kid, but unfortunately, you made the wrong decision this time," The black haired man said, dark amusement lacing his tone, "You see, I'm the A-ranked dark mage Tentou Korya. Also known as the "Beast-master"."

"..."

I know that you once used to be an S-ranked dark mage," Tentou continued, "but I also know that you were actually weak enough to even be defeated by A-ranked mages. The only reason you even made it to S-rank was because you always chose to fight your enemies in the battlefields that you had rigged. Well, considering the fact that you have no traps set here, you're as good as dead!"

Grey wyvern wings sprung out of Tentou's back and his hands turned into wyvern claws. He bent his knees and shot towards his opponent with booming flap of his wings. Naruto leaped to the side and barely dodged the grey and black blur charging towards him.

 _'He can't keep up with my speed!'_ Tentou thought to himself as he turned around and flapped his wings again. Once again Tentou barely missed Naruto as he dodged to the side again.

Using his wings, Tentou easily stopped his, now useless, charge.

"What's wrong, Naruto Scarlet, can't keep up with me?" Tentou taunted.

Naruto's eye twitched a bit before he shot towards Tentou. In an instant, they engaged in a rapid flurry of hand-to-hand combat.

Block, block, right hook, deflected, deflect the fist heading towards the chest, downward punch from the right hand, deflected, upward kick, deflected, disengage!

Tentou jumped back and retreated from the clash.

"You're pretty good at hand-to-hand," He praised, panting, "You've deflected every single one of my attacks, you haven't even blocked once. You've noticed it pretty quickly."

"What, that you gain the ability of a wyvern's wherever your transformations occurred?" Naruto asked, not even slightly out of breath, "Obviously I noticed. No way can I block the strength of a wyvern. Not with this body at least."

Tentou growled, "Don't get cocky!" He rushed towards the blonde haired boy with a flap of his wings and almost landed a blow on him.

The Orange Demon couldn't keep up with his speed, but he was doing a pretty good job of narrowly avoiding his strikes.

Once again, the two combatants engaged in a duel of hand-to-hand. The battle was fast-paced and both combatants were unleashing a flurry of blows on their enemy, yet, not single one was landing on either side.

Deciding that he had had enough, Naruto spun underneath a horizontal swipe of Tentou's and kicked his jaw so hard, that he was sent flying upwards.

"Guh!" Tentou grunted in pain as he used his wings to stabilize himself.

"You've made the last mistake of your life!" He angrily yelled as he rushed towards Naruto with a booming flap of his wings. Naruto dodged to the side again but before Tentou could charge through, he flapped his wings again and suddenly appeared behind Naruto.

 _'Take this!'_ He yelled inside his head as he brought his hands together to land a haymaker on the blonde's head.

Naruto turned his head a bit and glared at Tentou out of the corner of his eye. Tentou almost shivered at the glacial blue glare but suppressed the urge and swung his haymaker down at the blonde's head.

But Naruto easily tilted his body to the side and buried his foot in Tentou's stomach.

"Gah!" Spit and blood flew out of Tentou's mouth as he flew back from the impact. Gasping and wheezing on the ground, Tentou tried to bring himself up but his strength failed him and his stomach protested in pain.

"H-how?" Tentou rasped out, his stomach devoid of air, "You couldn't keep up with my speed before!"

"That was an act," Naruto informed as he turned his entire body towards Tentou and started slowly walking towards him, "These eyes can't keep up with up with the speed that my eyes could keep up with before, but I still have more than enough experience fighting insanely fast people. Don't get cocky, you bastard. Your speed isn't anything special."

Tentou slowly brought himself up form the ground before grey magical energy burst out from his body.

"RHAAAA!" He yelled as grey scales covered his entire body, "If I can't beat you with speed, then I'll simply up my defense! Hand to hand won't do anything to a wyvern's armor."

Naruto smirked and brought his hand up in a position that he'd brought it up in a thousand times before, "Let me show you an incredible technique," a blue sphere with energy moving in all sorts of directions appeared out of thin air on his hand, " _ **Rasengan**_!"

Tentou braced himself and got ready to dodge, but...

Naruto appeared in front of him before he could even realize what was going on and jammed the _**Rasengan**_ in his gut.

"And my name isn't Scarlet, you bastard! It's Uzumaki!" He yelled as he pushed the rasengen further against Tentou's flesh.

"GH-GHAAAAAAAA!" Tentou screamed in pain as he spun and flew across the street.

Once he hit the ground, he did not get up again.

Naruto looked around and noticed the crowd that he had attracted. They were standing quite a ways away, but still close enough to see the battle.

Unsure of what to do, raised a hand in greeting and yelled, "Yo!"

Using that as some sort of indication, the citizens started cheering and clapping,

"WHOOOOO!"

"That was AWESOME!"

"You look so COOL!"

"Who is that guy!?"

"yeah, he beat that monster guy like he was nothing!"

Naruto grinned at the praise and rubbed the back of head abashedly before he raised his arms in cheer, "Whooo! I'm awesome!"

The cheers died down as the mayor, a bald old man, probably in his fifties, with a grey beard and wrinkled face, walked through the crowd, "Please come with me, Mr. Mage. I must reward you for defeating this Dark Mage, the "Beast-master"."

The crowd quietly whispered amongst themselves.

"A dark mage?"

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"Wasn't the "Beast-master" an A-ranked dark mage?"

"Yeah, I heard he was super strong!"

"Oh yeah, I remember! He's the guy who always kills his targets!"

"Uwah! Scary!"

"Then that blonde guy must be super strong, right?"

"Yeah, that guy defeated the "Beast-master" like he was nothing!"

The mayor loudly cleared his throat, "Gaurds! Throw that man in prison!" He said as he pointed at Tentou, "We'll hand him over to the council later!"

He turned to look at Naruto, "I have already escorted the young girl from Cait Shelter and her cat to my office, please follow me."

Naruto, having no reason not to believe the mayor, nodded and complied.

* * *

The mayor's office wasn't as grand as he thought it would be. The entire interior was decorated in wood and the only furnishings there were a desk and chair, which was where the mayor sat, and a sofa to accommodate special guests.

"Please," The mayor began as he led Naruto inside, "Have a seat."

Wendy and Charle were already sitting on the sofa, but there was still room for one more.

Naruto sat down where the mayor had indicated.

The Mayor sighed as he stood behind his desk, "Where should I start?"

"How about you first raise Wendy's pay?" Naruto suggested, "She _did_ take a mission which had false details on it."

Charle narrowed her eyes at the mayor, "False details?"

The mayor gave Naruto a surprised look, "You knew?"

Naruto shrugged, "Nah, I just kinda figured out the gist of it," His eyes turned frosty, "You better explain the entire story to us though."

The mayor felt cold sweat run down his back as he nodded, "Y-yes, of course!"

He took a seat in his chair and started his story, "You see, two years ago, a relatively minor merchant guild called Yotsuba climbed through the ranks by making use of dark guilds. Whichever merchant guild was in their way was ruthlessly slaughtered. They should've all gone to jail, but... we had no proof. Without proof, the government could not act. You know, it was at that time that I started looking up to the Orange Demon as a hero. Were he still alive, he would've brought Yotsuba down a long time ago!"

Naruto melancholically stared at the ground while Charle glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Anyway, Yotsuba took over the entire trading industry and raised the cut of profits that they would receive from each business. Soon they started purchasing land and strategically killed off people to lower the prices they had to pay for those plots of land. With so much land in their hands, the other merchant guilds could not set up shop anywhere, since they had to pay special fees for conducting business there. That's when all the merchant guilds brave enough to oppose Yotsuba rose up and created an alliance, the "Free Merchants Alliance". We united and financially opposed Yotsuba by competing with their businesses and lands. I'm a part of this alliance. We lost many good people to Yotsuba, but since we only trade legally, even we couldn't keep up with Yotsuba."

"Oh no! What happened?" Wendy asked as she covered her mouth with her hands.

"It was only a matter of time before our funds dipped into the red. In fact, we predicted that our funds would dip into the red by next month. We were incredibly panicked and had no idea on what to do, until... we finally found proof of their illegal activities!"

Charle frowned, "And that's where Wendy came in."

The mayor sadly nodded, "We heard that Yotsuba had an incredibly powerful mage on their side and we didn't have enough funds! But we still desperately needed that proof to reach someone who could present it to the government! And... I was the closest person they could send it to. That's where we came up with a plan; we would present the mission as "extremely easy" so that Yotsuba wouldn't suspect anything and the evidence would still reach my hands. We would have hired an S-class mage to protect the evidence, but, like I said, we had no money left..."

"But Wendy was still attacked anyway!" Charle growled.

The mayor dipped his head in apology, "I'm sorry, someone must have tipped of Yotsuba. And even if no one did, what we did was extremely wrong. Please forgive us."

"P-please raise your head, mayor-san," Wendy said shyly, "I-I forgive you."

The mayor felt a few tears leak out of his eyes, "Thank you! Thank you very much! Have no fear, I'll recompense appropriately as soon as I can!"

Wendy raised her hands, "N-no! It's fine, mayor-san!" She took a quick and discreet glance at Naruto, "I already received what I wanted."

The mayor's lips quivered, "At-at least stay for the night. A festival is soon going to take place tonight; you must attend!"

Wendy granted him a warm smile, "Okay, mayor-san!"

* * *

"I can't believe he also provided us with a hotel room," Charle said as she and Wendy walked out of the building and headed towards Naruto, who was waiting for them.

The streets were decorated in red stalls and lights. Cheerful noises were everywhere, kids screaming, adults talking, Hawkers hawking, stalls advertising, and fireworks booming above them.

"I wonder why he only gave us one hotel room though," Wendy wondered with an innocent tilt of her head, "Where will Naruto-sensei sleep?"

Charle gave her a sad look, "Wendy... Naruto isn't-"

"Oh, there you guys are," Naruto greeted as they walked up to him, "Check this out guys! This is so awesome!"

Charle sighed, "You're the kind of guy who likes festivals, huh?"

Naruto nodded excitedly, "Yep! They're so fun!"

The air around Charle turned serious, "Before we go though, I have a question that I want you answer honestly."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the steel in Charle's tone, "Go on."

Charle took a deep breath, "You remember everything about your past as the Orange Demon, don't you?"

Wendy's eyes widened as Naruto instantly shook his head, "Nope."

Charle's jaw dropped, "What do you mean "nope"!? Back in the clothing store, when I said that I felt a foreboding chill, you instantly narrowed your eyes and tried to change the subject!"

Naruto grinned, "Ah, that! That was because I thought you had sensed that weird beast guy's killing intent and didn't want to tip him off."

The wind left Charle's sails, "O-oh," Suddenly, the wind returned, "but you didn't deny it when I said that you were the Orange Demon!"

Naruto nodded, "Yep, the person who healed me already told me that."

"Y-you're a wanted criminal, Naruto-sensei?" Wendy asked, surprised.

Naruto shrugged, "Apparently."

"Wh-what should I do? I'm supposed to turn you in!" Wendy panicked.

Naruto waved off her concern, "Eh, don't worry. Let's just enjoy the festival. We'll decide on what to do later."

She shouldn't have calmed down. She shouldn't have relaxed. She was standing face to face to a wanted criminal for god's sake!

But... for some reason, the blonde easily managed to get her to do just that.

He grinned and pulled the both of them along, "Let's go!"

* * *

It was fun!

That's all Wendy could say.

It was really, really fun!

They'd played games, tried on accessories, danced, eaten new foods, and generally just fooled around.

She wanted to stay like this forever!

But, like they say, all good things must come to an end.

"Naruto-sensei, why are we here?" Wendy asked as she took another bite from her cotton candy.

She looked around. For some reason, after everything had come to an end, Naruto had brought her to the Northern gate of Cocoria town.

Naruto... he pushed her to grasp new heights, he comforted her, saved her, helped her, corrected her, and... he lit up the path in front of her. She didn't know how, but Naruto had easily managed to worm his way into the little family she had created for herself.

Jellal was her older brother, Charle was her stern younger sister, Rob-jichan was her grandfather, Grandeeney was her mother, and Naruto was her other brother.

It was the perfect little family she had created for herself. Jellal and Grandeeney had left, but she would find them both someday, and they would all live happily together!

She looked up at Naruto, innocently waiting for his answer to her question.

"Sorry, Wendy," Naruto said with a smile, and perhaps it was the darkness of the night, but his smile looked extremely sad, "But I've got to go now."

The world froze.

Her grip slacked and her cotton candy dropped to the ground.

"Wh-why?" Wendy asked tearfully, "Why do you have to go!?"

She dropped to her knees and whispered to herself, "Why does no one stay...?"

Charle sadly looked at the blue haired girl, "Wendy..."

Naruto looked up at the cloudy night sky, "Y'know, back when you had first started the ""Hitting the Targets While Moving" training, Charle and I had a conversation. During that conversation, I told her that I felt something other than jealousy or disbelief at your rapid learning rate. I didn't know what that other emotion was at the time, but, after seeing you take down that wyvern, I finally know."

Wendy hiccuped and cried, but she still anxiously waited for his words.

Naruto crouched and put a hand on her head, "Congratulations on rising above yourself!" He gave her an extremely gentle smile that made the night sky seem like it was shining with the light of a million stars,

"I'm proud of you, Wendy."

Wendy's lip quivered before an extremely happy smile overtook her face, all the while, tears of sadness running down her face.

Naruto took his hand off of Wendy's head, brought himself up, and turned around, "I have to go now, Wendy."

Even in the midst of her tears, Wendy couldn't help but notice the quiver in Naruto's voice.

He started walking off before he stopped once again, "Oh, and I almost forgot to say this in all that confusion, but... you look good in those clothes, Charle."

Charle smiled as a lone tear ran down her face,

"Likewise, Naruto."

* * *

 _ **Author's Note - I know that Naruto can't carve, but... yeah please just let it go. Anyway, did anyone catch the Death Note reference? Oh, and on that vein, there was small part in this chapter that I used a different writing style to write in. This writing style was inspired by** **nephilimkinu12.**_

 _ **Continuing on, the snippets of Lucy POV in the background are there to show what's going in with the main Fairy Tail cast while Naruto isn't interacting with them. Now, they won't have a lot of detail since I assume that everyone who chose thread this story has at least some idea of happened in the Fairy Tail series. I think about one, two, or three chapters more before Naruto**_ ** _actually interacts with Fairy Tail._**

 ** _P.S. Yeah, I know that a wyvern only has two legs. Let's just say that this is a different species of wyvern. Happy(no pun intended)?_**

 ** _P.P.S. No, the OCs still aren't important._**


	3. Please Save The World, Naruto-sama!

_**Disclaimer**_ _ **\- I don't own Fairy Tail nor do I own Naruto**_

* * *

Michelle was an ordinary 35-year old woman. Perhaps she was a bit on the obese side and perhaps she did have a mite too many freckles, but other than that, her blonde hair and brown eyes were far from even toeing the "ordinary" boundary line. She brushed her teeth in the morning, ate her breakfast, went to man her weapon's shop everyday (Yes, even Sundays. The owner of a small store didn't really have much to do, you know!), and generally continued her day just like every other citizen who didn't have magic.

She was the owner of an weapon's shop though and, therefore, was bound to meet at least a few crazy Mages or travelers. That had actually been her plan when she was younger, but now that she was older, she kind of regretted it.

Especially now.

"Hah? Of course I haven't seen a nine-tailed fox that's at least larger than Cocoria town," She told her customer, incredulous that such a creature even existed.

Her customer's voice told her that he was at least a young man, but she could't glean anymore information due to the giant brown cloak that covered his entire body and the accompanying hood that didn't entirely cover his face, but was large enough to at least shadow it.

"I'm talking about three years ago - not now," her customer explained, "Did you see a giant nine-tailed three years ago?"

"Like I told you, of course not," Michelle answered her annoyance steadily building up, "If something like that even existed, then it would make the news!"

Her customer frowned (or at least she thought he did) before he brought his hand out from the slit in the middle of the cloak and rubbed his shadowed chin.

Her eyes didn't miss the fact that his hand was quite tan, but still light-skinned, nor did they miss the fact that that the sleeve of the top that he was wearing was colored orange with three black horizontal stripes covering the part where the cuffs of a shirt were usually located.

"What about a white-colored dragon who calls herself Grandeeny?" He asked after a while.

Michelle rubbed her temples in an effort to stave off the incoming headache.

"No," she replied tersely, "I have not seen a freakin' dragon either."

Her customer withdrew his hand back inside his cloak and let out a large defeated sigh, "Do you at least know how to get to Crocus?"

Michelle smiled genuinely for the first time since this young man had started speaking, and nodded in a satisfied manner, "Now that, I can do."

* * *

Naruto sighed as he exited the small weapon's shop. According to the shop owner (Micheal or Michen or something, he really couldn't remember), Crocus was north of here and and he had two ways to get there. Either he could take the trail or the train to Crocus.

Normally, he would've rejected the train almost immediately. Not only did it cost money to board, but, thanks to Snow country, his experiences with them were... let's say, less than pleasant. He was quite pressed for time though, and the thought of dying just because he was stingy and stubborn helped him make his decision for him.

It was time to take a train!

If he was honest though, he doubted that he would get any worthwhile information in Crocus, but that old mayor...

* * *

 _"Okay, mayor-san!" Wendy smiled warmly as she accepted the mayor's request to stay for the night and attend the upcoming festival_

 _The mayor's lips quivered as he smiled back, "Th-thank you."_

 _He opened a_ _drawer underneath his desk and presented Wendy a map, "Go here," he said, pointing at a specific location in the map, "It's a very nice hotel for travelers. I'll call them and tell them to let you stay for free."_

 _"N-no, it's fine. We can-" Wendy tried to deny before she was interrupted by Naruto._

 _"Go, Wendy," he ordered with a smile before he leaned down and quietly whispered into her ear, "Mayor-san already feels guilty for tricking you. If he doesn't at least do this, then he'll feel even worse when you leave."_

 _Wendy's eyes widened as she took a glance at the map in her hands before she quietly whispered back, "B-but he doesn't have to feel guilty! I already forgave him!"_

 _"Just because you say he doesn't have to feel guilty, doesn't mean that he won't," Naruto whispered back, "He wants to repent, Wendy. Do you really want to deny him that chance?"_

 _Naruto brought his head away from Wendy's ear as Wendy looked down at the map in her hands before she looked up at the mayor's desperate face._

 _"Okay," she finally accepted, "Thank you for letting us stay for the night for free, mayor-san."_

 _The mayor burst out into a smile, "Thank you! I'm sure that you will absolute love the hotel! Trust me, it's really comfortable!"_

 _"Hmph," Charle spoke up, "We'll be the judge of that."_

 _"You guys go," Naruto said as he relaxed one leg on top of the other, "I'll catch up later. I have some important things to talk about with the mayor."_

 _"We can stay a little longer," Wendy said innocently._

 _Naruto grinned, "Nah, you guys go. I don't how long the will take, so it's best if you guys go now."_

 _"But-" Wendy started before she was interrupted by Charle,_

 _"Let's go, Wendy. The barbarian said he'll catch up."_

 _She all but pushed Wendy out the door, and before she closed the door behind her, she gave the blonde boy a meaningful nod._

 _Naruto grinned, the small cat was haughty but sharp. She must have easily picked up on the fact that he wanted to talk to the mayor alone._

 _"You... you are the Orange Demon, are you not?" The mayor said, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts._

 _"So you recognized me... is that why you mentioned me in your explanation?" Naruto wondered._

 _The mayor nodded, "Yes, but what I said wasn't false. I really do see you as a hero."_

 _Naruto sighed sadly at his words, "You really shouldn't."_

 _The mayor's eyes widened, "B-but why!? What you did was right!"_

 _Naruto shrugged uncomfortably, "Is that so?"_

 _The mayor nodded fervently, "Yes!"_

 _Naruto's eyes darkened, "That's what I was afraid of..." He muttered quietly._

 _The mayor, unable to catch his words, leaned closer, "Yes?"_

 _Naruto squinted his eyes and put a false grin on his face, "Nah, it's nothing. By the way, I've lost my memories so I don't actually remember my time as the Orange Demon."_

 _The mayor gasped, "D-don't remember!? What are you going to do, Orange Demon-sama?"_

 _"At the moment, I'm searching for a a giant nine-tailed fox," Naruto answered nonchalantly._

 _The mayor's forehead wrinkled even more than usual, "A... fox?"_

 _Naruto nodded, "I'm a hundred percent sure that this particular fox is at least larger than the entirety of Cocoria town."_

 _The mayor's eyes widened while Wendy's desire to find her mother sprang up in Naruto's mind._

 _"Oh," he spoke up again, "I'm also looking for a white dragon called Gram... um, no, it was uhhh, Grandeeny! Yeah, Grandeeny. The dragon I'm searching for is called Grandeeny!"_

 _The mayor's eyes widened even more before he asked hesitantly, "I-if I may... why are you searching for... such creatures?"_

 _Naruto smiled enigmatically, "It's important."_

 _The mayor, getting the message that he didn't want to talk about it, simply nodded, "I'm not sure if I believe in such things... but, if... if these creatures truly do exist, then you can probably gain information on them in Crocus."_

 _Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Crocus?"_

 _The mayor sighed sadly, "Looks like you have truly lost your memories, Orange Demon-sama."_

 _Naruto remained silent._

 _"Crocus is the capital of Fiore," the mayor continued, "the amount of information that the city holds is tremendous."_

 _Naruto rubbed his chin, "Tremendous, eh?"_

 _The mayor nodded, "The royal family lives there, so a lot of information can be found there."_

 _Naruto frowned, "Is that so...?" He mulled over the suggestion for a few more seconds before he nodded resolutely, "Well, it's not like I have any better leads, so I guess Crocus is my first destination."_

 _"When do you leave, Orange De-" The mayor started asking curiously before he was_ _interrupted by Naruto._

 _"Just call me Naruto."_

 _"V-very well, Naruto-sama," The mayor accepted hesitantly before he got back to his original question, "So, as I was asking, when do you leave, Naruto-sama?"_

 _Naruto sighed internally at being called Naruto-sama. Acknowledgment was all that he had once desired, and having his name called with such reverence should have made him all fuzzy on the inside, but... the feeling was completely lost due to the reason that he was regarding him with such respect._

 _"Tonight," Naruto said after bringing himself out of his thoughts, "I'll be leaving after attending the festival tonight."_

 _The mayor nodded before he opened his drawer again and pulled out a folded brown cloak from inside._

 _"Here, Naruto-sama," he said as he handed Naruto the cloak, "Even if you've been gone for three years, there are still people who will recognize your face even now, You used to be quite famous- or infamous, depending on who you ask. It would be wise to at least cover your face when traveling."_

 _Naruto grinned gratuitously as he took the cloak and placed it in his bag, "Thanks! I'll wear it once I leave."_

 _"Oh, and take this, Naruto-sama," the mayor said as he dug around his pocket and fished out a bunch of paper money (Jewels, he remembered), "You'll need these to travel."_

 _Naruto raised an eyebrow as he pocketed the Jewels, "I thought you said that you didn't have money."_

 _The mayor shook his head, "I said that I didn't have enough money to hire an S-rank Mage. This is just enough money to travel and buy some supplies."_

 _Naruto nodded, "Ah, I see now. Thanks, old man."_

 _The mayor shook his head sadly, "No, this is the least I could do to repay you."_

 _Naruto smiled and put a comforting hand on the mayor's shoulder, "You've done more than enough to repay me. You have no idea how important that nine-tailed fox is to me."_

 _The mayor trembled, tears threatening to put out of his eyes, "All I did was give you a lead."_

 _Naruto's smile widened, "I had no idea on where to go before you told me this. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm really, REALLY grateful to you, old man."_

 _The mayor looked up at Naruto with hopeful eyes, "_ _Really?"_

 _Naruto nodded,_

 _"Really."_

* * *

26-year old and unremarkable James Conshue was once again, like the past five years of his life, walking down the train and awakening passengers who had fallen asleep during the trip.

This was his job and he neither particularly liked or disliked it. Sure it was monotonous, but it brought in the money. Were he married - or least had kids - then perhaps he would reconsider, but for now, he was fine with this.

Today's batch of customers were particularly tired; almost all of them were sleeping. This was probably because it had taken about eight whole hours by train to arrive to Crocus.

He shook the passenger of seat eight, a 40-something year old business man by the looks of it, awake. The conductor had already informed all of the passengers about the arrival through the loudspeaker, therefore, trying to awaken them through voice alone was probably going to take a lot more work than simply shaking them awake.

The passenger's eyes slowly opened as he took brief account of his surrounding. He carefully and politely rubbed his eyes with his fingers before he straightened his sitting posture and asked in a deep, rich baritone, "Yes?"

"We have arrived, sir," James answered politely, as he had done at least a thousand times before.

With that, he turned away and walked up to seat nine. He had absolutely no obligation to cater to any of the passengers' needs after waking them up.

The train was a cheap train with only one seat on either side arranged into rows, so he only really had to take about two small steps to "walk up" to seat nine.

Now, James had awakened many a passenger in his life, but this one was a little stranger than the others. The passenger was covered from head to toe in a brown cloak and was sleeping in quite a haphazard position: legs spread out, head leaning on the arm-rest, and drool leaking out from under his hood. The passenger's snores were no less impressive either, they almost sounded like thunder.

James glanced at the cloaked passenger's luggage and spotted... a black school-bag?

Was this guy a kid who wanted to look cool or something?

James was curious about the hooded passenger's identity and reached out towards the passengers hood before he came to his senses and changed his course to reach for the passenger's shoulder.

James took hold of the passenger's shoulder and shook it lightly.

No response.

James' eye twitched; deep sleepers were the most troublesome ones to awaken.

Once again, he shook the passenger's shoulder, a bit more violently this time.

The passenger's snores only got louder.

James' eye-twitching got a lot more violent, and with it, his shaking.

Finally, the snores came to an abrupt end.

The passenger's head swiveled, probably to recall where he was and what was going on, before it faced him.

"Yeah?" The passenger asked callously.

Ah, a male then... probably (Hey, there were many different kinds of people in the world!). The passenger sounded like he was in his later teens, perhaps 17 or 18?

"We have arrived, sir," James informed politely, as was his job.

The passenger stretched in his seat, rubbed his eyes, and yawned before he spoke,

"What time is it?" The passenger asked drowsily.

"It is one o' clock, sir," James answered politely.

"Gotcha, thanks."

"It was my pleasure, sir," James responded before he turned away and walked up to seat ten.

He internally shrugged at his decision to not unhood the passenger of seat nine and satisfy his curiosity. It was probably for the best, it wouldn't do to lose his job just because he got curious.

He chuckled as he remembered the hooded passenger's black school-bag. The passenger probably wasn't anyone worthy of note anyway.

Oh, if only he knew.

* * *

Lucy had tried her best on the Daybreak job, but hadn't received any reward for it. Which, for the record, was SOOOOO unfair!

But, she'd already vented her grievances and it was time to move on now.

"Hmmm," She made a sound as she examined the request board, "'Search for a magic bracelet', 'Remove spell from a cursed stick', 'Fortune telling love with Astrology'? EXTERMINATING A DEVIL IN A VOLCANO!? There's so many different types of requests here."

"If you find anything that interests you, let me know," Mira spoke up from the bar counter, "Since Master isn't here right now."

Lucy glanced at the spot on the bar counter which Master usually occupied and, true to Mira's statement, noticed him missing.

"Oh yeah, you're right," she said.

"He has to attend the regular meeting, so he'll be out for a while," Mira informed.

"Regular meeting?" Lucy asked curiously.

"It's a meeting where Guild Masters from different provinces come to report about their guilds," Mira explained, "it's different from a council meeting, but... ummm... I guess it can be a bit confusing," she turned to Reedus, who was in the midst of drinking, "Reedus, can I borrow your light pen, please?"

"Oui."

* * *

Konoha was probably larger, but the size of Crocus was no joke; it was on a completely different level than Cocoria town, and Tenberry village couldn't even compare to it.

Naruto marveled at his surroundings as he walked down the market-street. The streets were packed with people of all kinds, government officials, Mages, mercenaries, civilians, merchants, and so many more (He was pretty sure he saw a few frogs walking around here and there too). Even though the city was littered with people, there was still enough space for him to make his way down the street comfortably without bumping into anyone. The sounds of footsteps, chatter, and hawking filled his ears as the sun's sweltering heat beat against his back, and a mixture of scents, different foods, and sweat (the most prominent of them) assaulted his nose.

Suddenly, his stomach grumbled, reminding of the fact that it had been eight hours since he had last eaten. Before he'd booked his train, he'd seen that some trains actually offered food but he'd chosen the cheapest train because, well... it was the cheapest.

Naruto spotted a decent looking restaurant before he fished through his pocket and extracted a few Jewels.

He sighed, he barely had any money left; probably only enough for one meal.

He mentally shrugged, he'd deal with consequences later. Right now, it was time to eat!

* * *

"ERZA'S BACK!" Loke announced as he entered the guild, his face pale and covered in sweat.

The guild fell into panic.

* * *

An entire day had passed since he'd arrived in Crocus and Naruto could feel his body and mind shutting down. Once he'd eaten a decent meal from the restaurant, he'd wandered the streets with no inkling on where to go and had ended up spending the night on a park bench. The next morning, he had to conduct his daily hygienic rituals in a lake - a clean lake, but a lake nonetheless - and to top it all of, he hadn't had either breakfast nor lunch either.

His stomach rumbled again for the thousandth time as he slowly wandered the sunlit streets. He put a hand on his stomach - a small comfort - and sighed. His eyes roamed in an effort to think for a solution out of this predicament, but all that caught his eyes, were restaurants. It wasn't very different for his nose either; all they noticed were the smells of various different foods.

He sighed again, the world looked a lot different when a person was starving.

Suddenly, while his eyes were glued to particularly delicious looking chicken skewer, a man accidentally ran into him. Naruto wasn't a shinobi for nothing though and easily regained his balance, but unfortunately, the crash managed to unhood him.

Naruto quickly put his hood back on and helped the person who crashed into him up, all the while looking around to see whether anyone had recognized him or not.

He breathed a small sigh of relief when he noticed that no one was in the midst of making a fuss or even looking at him with more than just idle curiosity on what had just happened.

"You okay?" Naruto asked the man who had just bumped into him.

The man nodded quickly, "A-ah, thank you, but I really must get going. I'm sorry."

With that, the man took off again.

Naruto scratched his head at the encounter before he sighed and took a seat at one of those outdoor cafe establishments.

He sighed again as his stomach rumbled. He really couldn't muster up the energy to even stand anymore.

five minutes later, a menu was placed on his table by a waitress decked out in a red uniform,

"What would you like to order, sir?"

Naruto scanned the menu and almost drooled at the sight.

"...I'll tell you when I decide," He said once he got hold of himself.

The waitress nodded and walked to another table.

Once she had left, Naruto rested his face on the table and put the menu in from of his face in a reading position in order to keep up the image that he was still deciding.

He sighed again as he once again scanned the menu once again.

Man... he could really go for some ramen right now. He hadn't had any ever since that weird time-reversing, world-changing coma.

Come to think of it, what exactly had happened anyway?

He mentally shrugged. He would find the answers to that once he found Kurama.

Suddenly, right behind him-

 _'Hostile intent!'_

He tensed his muscles, sharpened his eyes, and was about to leap forward in order to create some distance, before-

"Don't move, Orange Demon," the hostile presence ordered into his ear, "If you do, then I'll let everyone everyone on this street know exactly who you are."

The voice sounded like it belonged to a girl just entering her teens.

Naruto smirked, "What does a kid want with me? It's dangerous to play with strangers, you know?"

"Be quiet," the hostile presence snapped, "and make sure to act natural; you know what will happen if you don't."

The hostile presence walked to the other side of his table and took a seat on the chair opposite of him.

The hostile presence had the height of a kid, but he really couldn't make out any other information due to the fact that the sudden blackmailer was wearing a cloak and a hood -the same type as his, only white - to cover herself (he'd resolved to treat the hostile presence as a girl until proven or told otherwise) up.

"Go on, kid, what-" Naruto started unconcernedly before he was interrupted.

"I already told you, be quiet... and don't call me kid," the hooded blackmailer said harshly, "I need you for a very dangerous job, and S-class criminals are hard to come by."

Naruto raised an eyebrow as he propped up his arm on the table and relaxed his head on it, "And how did you recognize me in the first place anyway?"

"That little moment that you had on the street," the hooded person answered, a hint of pride in her voice, "No one probably recognized you because you were only unhooded for a split-second and because it's been three years since you were last well-known, but, ever since I was five, I've been trained to memorize the face of every criminal. S-ranked criminals _especially_."

Naruto grinned, "Oh really, since five? You must be someone quite important then."

The hooded person apparently realized her mistake and slapped her hands over her mouth.

"By the way," Naruto said casually as he looked around at the various different people who were trying to subtly stare at them, "Did you know that when two hooded people sit together, they look incredibly suspicious?"

The hooded person followed his example and looked around. Judging from her next words, she had noticed the truth in his statement.

"Let's go to someplace private then," she said, removing her hands from her mouth.

She briskly stood up and gestured at him to follow her. Curious at what she wanted, Naruto slowly nodded and followed her.

She swiftly led him through winding streets as if she knew them like the back of her hand and finally stopped in front of a small, inconspicuous house.

There were two armored guards standing in front of the doorway, but the hooded person confidently walked up to them and whispered something into their ears. Once the hooded person finished speaking, the guards gave her a bow and let them enter.

Naruto couldn't be a hundred percent sure, but he was pretty sure that both of the guards tensed like crazy when he passed them by.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, did they already know that he was the Orange Demon?

As Naruto entered the house, he couldn't help but feel a little awe at the sight that lay before him.

Soft-looking rugs with intricate designs on them, expensive mahogany furniture, flowery wallpaper; the exterior may have looked like any plain old house but the interior looked like the house belonged to particularly wealthy person.

"Sit down," the hooded voice commanded from the fancy looking dining table, snapping him out his thoughts.

Naruto complied and took a seat opposite of her before he removed his hood.

"I hate that damn hood," Naruto said as he ran his hand through his hair and eyed the innocuous hood lying on his shoulders with obvious disdain.

"I agree," The girl said as she removed her own hood, revealing her amused smile, "Albeit, I would use less... crass words."

The loss of her hood allowed Naruto to finally examine his mysterious blackmailer's face. Her childlike features suggested that she was only eleven or twelve years old, but she didn't have a lot of baby fat. A small tiara rested atop her long, wavy, light green hair, which cascaded all the way down to the middle of her back and her emerald eyes seemed to perceive the world in a much more mature light than was required of people of her age.

She grandly put a hand on her chest, "My name is Hisui E. Fiore, the princess of Fiore!" She more announced than informed, "And I have a task for you, Orange Demon!"

Ah, so that was why she had been wearing such secretive clothing.

Naruto sighed, "Sorry, princess, but I've got something really important to do, so I can't really help you right now. Maybe later."

Princess Hisui slammed her hands on the table, producing a loud 'BANG!', "Please! this is a matter that concerns the fate of the entire world! I've heard the stories about you, Orange Demon, even if you go about it the wrong way, you still stand on the side of justice! You have to help!"

Naruto eyed the green haired princess warily, "The fate of the world? What do you mean by that?"

The princess's arms slackened, "In our royal library, I found an ancient tome that foretold of a spell that could destroy the entire world," Naruto's eyes narrowed as she continued speaking, "I found the location of the spell displayed in the tome - and even went there with a few guards - but there was this strange golem which attack anyone who would try to get to the spell. One of my guards was equal to an A-ranked mage, but after just seconds of fighting, we were forced to retreat."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Clonius, the guard equal to an A-rank mage, told us to. He said that the golem was too strong for him to face and that it would take several S-ranks to defeat it."

"Is this Clonius guy still alive?"

"Yes, not a single one of my guards died down there."

Naruto ears twitched, "Down there?"

The princess nodded, "It was in a cave."

"How large?"

Princess Hisui looked down at the floor, "I don't know, it was too dark to see."

Naruto's eyes widened infinitesimally, "You went down there with your guards?"

The princess proudly brought her head up, "Of course! It's my duty to care for my subjects!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "And your dad allowed you to go?"

The princess avoided his gaze, "It's my duty to care for my kingdom and subjects! Had I told my father, he wouldn't have allowed me to go and would've sent a few thousand soldiers instead!"

"Oh? And what's the problem in that?"

The princess fiercely met his eyes, "Too many people would have died! That's why I was about to set off in search of S-class criminals!"

Naruto silently raised an eyebrow.

Some of the fire left the princess's eyes as she calmed down, "My father can't really move clandestinely - unless there's a large event or something, of course - but _I_ can. Brokering a deal with criminals is impossible for my father, but it's possible for ME. I'll do what my father can't, which is to save the world with minimum casualties! It's my duty!"

Naruto's eye twitched, that "duty" crap was getting real annoying. And what was up with that giant vocabulary, just how old was this girl?

"Oh? So criminal lives are worthless, is that it?"

The princess shook her head slowly, "Not worthless, no, but they are certainly worth less than a law-abiding citizen's."

Naruto's narrowed his eyes, Haku's feminine face instantly jumping to his mind "...'That so?"

The princess confidently nodded, "Of course!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed further. She wasn't childish; not completely, at least. He had been childish when he was her age - and still was in many aspects - but even he'd judged a person based on their actions rather than their status. This quick judgment based on each person's status was probably either the product of a sheltered upbringing, or...

"Everyone knows that criminal lives are worth less than law-abiding lives. Criminals CHOSE to become criminals; they're despicable."

...the product of her social environment.

Perhaps both.

The princess furrowed her brows, "We're getting off topic! Please help me, I'll even reward you whatever you want!"

Naruto's finger twitched, "Anything I ask?"

The princess didn't hesitate in nodding, "Yes."

Naruto fixed her with an evaluating gaze, "Well then, first of all, I want some food."

The princess easily nodded, "Done."

"Second, I want a ton of money."

Once again, a nod received his demand, "As expected."

He smirked, "Third, from now on, you shall always address me as, Naruto-sama."

The princess frowned at his request but...

"...Done."

His eyes narrowed.

How far was this girl willing to...?

His eyes sharpened, an evil glow permeating from them as his mouth morphed into a devilish smirk,

"Fourth and last... when you grow up, I want you to marry me."

The princess's eyes widened, "Wha- but..."

Naruto's smirk widened, "Oh? Will you reject my demands?"

"Wh-why do you want to marry me?"

Naruto let out a sinister laugh, "For the throne, of course! The current king will die someday, and, if I marry you, then I will essentially become royalty!"

The princess grit her teeth and clenched her fists, "...Very well,"

Naruto's expression fell off his face and his eyes widened as the princess spoke her next words,

"I accept."

Time seemed to stop.

He couldn't believe it... What was wrong with this girl? Just how far was she willing to go for her kingdom?

WHY was she willing to go so far for her kingdom?

"How... old are you?" Naruto asked, his cerulean eyes trying to pierce their way into the princess's mind.

"T-twelve."

Twelve?

She was only twelve, and she was ready to give her hand in marriage to an S-ranked criminal, all for the sake of her kingdom?

Why?

Even if she was a child who hadn't thought ahead, she should still have known what a big deal it was to give away your hand in marriage!

Sure, royals conducted political marriages all the time, but criminals were different and this girl had made it clear just how highly she thought of criminals.

"You... Do you really understand what you just accepted to?"

Hisui nodded resolutely, "Of course. I will definitely hate it, but if that is your condition, then it must be done."

"Why? Why are you willing to go so far for your kingdom?"

It almost seemed as if Hisui's answer was an automatic response, as if the answer she gave would be spoken whenever he pressed a specific button,

"Because it is my duty."

* * *

"Why aren't we going to the spell right now?" Hisui asked as she and Naruto, both covered in their hood and cloaks, maneuvered through the evening crowd.

The sun was currently in the process of dipping into the ground, dying the world in its vivid shade of red.

"'Cause I'm way too hungry right now," Naruto answered as he grabbed onto Hisui's hand and pulled her out of the way of two large guys who were barreling through the crowd.

"Thank you, N-Naruto-sama," Hisui said, struggling to call him "Naruto-sama", as Naruto let go of her hand, "Back on topic though, had you simply told me that you were hungry, then I would've just asked my chefs to cook something back in the safe-house."

Naruto shook his head, "No way, I want to eat some local restaurant food, not snobbish high-class food!"

Hisui pouted and furrowed her brows, "Our food tastes perfectly fine, Naruto-sama!"

"Sure, sure," Naruto replied dismissively, "Besides, I want to try some other stuff as well."

Hisui raised an eyebrow, "Other stuff?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep, let's just go and eat for now though."

Hisui sighed, "Very well... how about-" she was about to point at a particularly fancy looking restaurant, but before she could,

"There," Naruto interrupted, pointing at a shabby looking stall.

Compared to the luxurious looking fancy restaurant, the shabby stall looked incredibly... well, shabby. The stall was barely wide enough to fit only around five people, and while the length was larger than the width, it was nothing that special. The main entrance of the store was simply a bunch of red flaps that had "Hyorinzo Ramen' written on it in bold, black letters.

"There?" Hisui asked incredulously.

Naruto nodded excitedly, "Yep!"

Hisui sighed, "Very well, let us get this over with quick."

Naruto chuckled as he pulled open the flaps and allowed Hisui to enter before entering himself.

She was right, the restaurant had only five cushioned stools, a table to put their food on behind it and even further behind it - behind a small gap for the cook to stand in - were where the all the cooking supplies and devices were located. The entire restaurant was bathed in a soft yellow light and the wooden walls and furniture were a lot cleaner and polished than she had expected them to be.

"Welcome!" An old woman garbed in a messy apron greeted warmly. Her hair - which was bound up in a short pony-tail - had turned all grey and the excess amount of wrinkles on her face suggested that she was at least above her seventies. Her chocolate brown eyes held a wise yet undeniably kind look to them, and even though she was the princess to the entire kingdom of Fiore, Hisui felt a bit humbled when they roved over her wizened features.

Naruto let the flap fall behind him before he bounced over to the second seat from the left.

"Oba-san, get me all the types of ramen you have!" He ordered with a relieved sigh.

The old woman blinked, "All of them?"

"Yep!"

The old woman hesitantly nodded, "Very well..."

Naruto, noticing that Hisui hadn't taken a seat yet, patted the stool beside him gave her a raised eyebrow, "What're you waiting for? Take a seat."

Hisui slowly walked up to him and took a seat on the stool to his right.

The old woman gave her a warm smile and gestured to her right, where there was a chalkboard hanging on the wall with the selectable choices written within,

"Please choose one. Or would you rather have all of them like your friend here?"

Hisui hadn't tasted, or even heard of any of these types of ramen, so she just picked one at random,

"Sh-Shoyu ramen."

The old woman nodded, her warm smile still on her face,

"Very well."

With that she turned around and got to work.

A few minutes later, Hisui heard Naruto groan in relief loudly beside her. She turned to look at Naruto and barely stopped herself from making a scene when she spotted him slipping off his hood, uncovering his whisker-marked face and bright, blond hair to the world.

 _"What are you doing!?"_ She whispered into the careless boy's ear.

"Calm down," Naruto said unconcernedly, evidently deciding that whispering back was not worth the trouble, "It'll be fine. You should remove your hood too, it's really hot this time of year and it's only going to get hotter once the ramen arrives."

 _"B-but-"_ Hisui was about to whisper a protest but, before she could even finish, Naruto quickly pulled down her hood.

"H-hey!" She exclaimed automatically as panic overtook her mind.

Unfortunately for Hisui, the old woman chose this exact moment to turn around and serve two bowls of ramen.

"I'm done! Thank you for- oh my!" She started announcing cheerfully before realization dawned on her face, "Princess Hisui and a deceased criminal in my humble shop! I must admit, I am quite unsure on how I should address this situation."

Naruto grinned mischievously and put a finger on his lips to indicate silence, "It's kind of a secret that we're even out here, so for tonight, we're just plain old Naruto and Hisui. That won't be a problem, will it?"

The old woman took a second to process all the information that she had been provided with, before she gave them a warm smile and nodded, "A criminal and princess? Please forgive the ramblings of an old woman, I'm afraid that my eyes simply don't function as well as they used to."

Naruto chuckled before let out a large, "Itadakimasu!" and dug in.

"This is great, Oba-san!" Naruto complimented enthusiastically. He didn't even wait until he'd swallowed his - frankly, quite large - first bite.

Hisui watched astounded as the blonde boy emptied his bowl in about fifteen seconds flat.

Naruto let out a large sigh of satisfaction before he turned to her and raised an eyebrow, "You're not going to eat?" He asked as he gestured to her own bowl of ramen.

"O-oh, right," she responded, still a little shocked at the blonde boy's inhuman eating speed.

She politely snapped her chopsticks apart,

"I-Itadakimasu."

And once that was done, she reached in with her chopsticks and slowly retrieved a few strands of noddles.

She had to admit, the dish had quite a hunger-evoking fragrance.

She took a small dainty bite and let the delicious and soft noodles melt in her mouth.

Her eyes widened; this one of the best dishes she'd eaten! Why hadn't she been made aware of this before.

"There's no need to be so polite," Naruto informed, "Ramen is made to be dug in. I doubt that you'll enjoy its taste to its fullest by taking small bites like that."

"I-is that the proper procedure to eating ramen?" Hisui asked curiously.

Naruto grinned, "There are no "proper procedures" to eating ramen. Ramen is just like any other food, I'm just telling you how I like to eat it best."

Hisui blinked while Naruto continued, "A person's style of eating can either enhance or diminish the taste of their food, y'know? You just have to find your own style of eating which makes your food taste the best for _you_."

Hisui looked at the ramen in front of her, "But it's impolite to simply scarf down food. What if that is what makes my food taste the best?"

Naruto shrugged, "There's no harm in being polite, and you'll probably have to be a lot of times in your line of work, but there are times when you should simply let yourself go and just have fun."

Hisui looked contemplatively at the bowl full of steaming, mouth-watering ramen in front of her.

"Go on," Naruto suggested with a warm smile, "No one here will judge you as the princess of Fiore. Did you forget? Right now, you're just Hisui."

"Just... Hisui," Hisui repeated slowly.

The old woman, who had already began cooking the next bowl of ramen for Naruto, looked back at Hisui and nodded.

Hisui mentally shrugged and gathered up a large amount of noodles with her chopsticks before she hesitantly stuffed them in her mouth, causing her cheeks to puff outwards in order to fit all that food.

The difference was astounding. Where before, the ramen simply tasted good, now, the ramen tasted like an explosion of miniature heaven. The taste overwhelmed her tongue, sending shivers down her spine, and the spice warmed her mouth, almost making her feel as if a dragon had been mixed in that giant bundle of stringy goodness.

Too bad she wasn't used to such large bites though; as soon as she tried to swallow, the bundle of noodles got stuck in her throat, causing her to start coughing.

It took her a few seconds and a glass of water from Naruto before the food slid down into her stomach and allowed her to breathe again.

Hisui breathed deeply as Naruto chuckled.

"You okay?" He asked.

Hisui nodded tiredly, "Yes, I'm fine," she gave the blonde haired boy a glare for laughing at her, "I thought you said that you wouldn't judge me!"

Naruto gave her a grin, "Nope, I said that I wouldn't judge you as the princess. What happened just now was pretty funny, princess or no."

Hisui pouted, causing Naruto's chuckles to turn into full blown laughter.

She gave the blonde boy another glare before she turned her head to look at her ramen and winced. After that little episode, her desire to finish her ramen had diminished by a fair amount.

She didn't complain though. She quietly pulled the bowl closer to her and unwillingly dipped her chopsticks into the bowl.

"You sure you don't want another glass of water?" Naruto asked, and Hisui wasn't sure about this, but she thought that she'd seen a hint of a frown on his face before he'd put up a face of curiosity.

"A glass of water?" Hisui asked, "Should I get one?"

This time, she was sure that his face had taken on a frown, before an unconcerned look replaced it, "That's your choice," Naruto said with a shrug, "Do you want one?"

Her throat was a quite itchy at the moment and there was probably a bit spice leftover there, so a glass of water sounded quite appealing at the moment.

"Y-yes," she answered after a moment of thought.

Naruto gestured at the old woman, "Then ask."

"Ah, um, I would like a glass of water, please," she hesitantly asked the old woman.

The old woman filled up a glass with cold water and served it to her with a warm smile, "Here you go."

The old woman turned around and got back to work as Hisui downed the glass water, feeling the refreshing liquid clearing her throat of discomfort.

Suddenly, the bowl of steaming ramen in front of her seemed appealing again.

She took another bite of noodles, a smaller one this time (though it was still larger than the ones she had started out with), and savored the taste. As she did, she discreetly glanced at the Naruto out of the corner of her eye.

Curiously, he had a nostalgic smile on his face as he waited for his next serving.

She swallowed her food and let out a small breath of satisfaction. She had to admit, even though the shop had seemed pretty shabby and uncomfortable from outside, this ramen bar was quite the cozy place.

Perhaps it was for the best that they hadn't entered that other fancy restaurant instead; she would have hated to miss this experience.

* * *

"I can't believe that you ate seven bowls of ramen," Hisui said as a cool wind hit her face and caused her hair to fly a bit.

Naruto shook his head in dismay, "Me too! Seven is way too less; I should have eaten at least five more bowls!"

"That... wasn't what I meant."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Oh? What else could you possibly mean?"

"I..." She ended up sighing, "just forget it. I have a much more pressing question to ask."

Naruto curiously raised an eyebrow, "Go on?"

Hisui took a deep breath before she yelled, "Why on earth are we on the roof of palace Mercurius!? Better yet, how on earth did you even manage to sneak us past all those guards!?"

Night had fallen upon Crocus, and after simply following after Naruto, she'd found herself on the roof of the very castle that she lived in.

Naruto shrugged at her question, "I just snuck past them and waited for you to automatically follow me. You looked like you were in your happy place, so I didn't want to disturb you."

Hisui let her shoulders sag, "You snuck past them and managed to sneak even me past them? That's not something I want to hear, you know? I _live_ in that castle."

Naruto shrugged again, "Meh, you'll be fine. Those guards didn't detect you and me because I'm just supremely awesome, but they seem vigilant enough to spot any conventional intruders."

Hisui's shoulders sagged further, "No conventional intruders would try to sneak into the _royal_ _castle_ , anyway."

Naruto chuckled and pat her shoulder before he took a seat and leaned against the inclined wall behind him, "You'll be fine. Most people don't have the stealth skills that I have... probably."

Hisui looked around a bit more and realized that, while they were situated on the roof of castle Mercurius, they still weren't located on the top-most point. She was rather relieved to see that; the cone which made up the top-most point of Mercurius castle seemed a tad too steep for her to stand or sit on. Instead, they were located on the, seemingly small from afar, protrusion that surrounded and rested at the cone's base.

She sighed and followed Naruto's example before she glared at him, "When exactly are you going to get started on your mission anyway? We already quelled your hunger, so we should get going now."

It was Naruto's turn to sigh, "Take it easy, princess. You're so focused on "doing your duty" that you don't even allow yourself to enjoy anything."

Hisui narrowed her eyes at him, "What do you mean?"

Naruto put a hand on her head and turned it towards the vast city underneath them.

"Look at this place," he said with a soft grin on his face, "Beautiful isn't it?"

Hisui felt a soft gasp escape her throat.

Indeed, the sight was spectacular. The size of the entire city seemed so large from here, yet the individual houses and people seemed so small. The weather seemed to have been manufactured for this specific sight; The moon was partially covered by clouds, so only some light was allowed to pass and illuminate the city. This caused the numerous lights in the city to sparkle and glow as if millions of diverse jewels had been poured into the city. The streets had emptied out quite a bit by now, but many people still wandered about, some talking to each other, some making their way to their respective destinations, and some simply idling about.

It was a marvelous sight worthy to be captured and preserved forever.

"You go as far as to agreeing to marry a criminal for your duty, but why does that duty exist?" Naruto softly asked, causing her to focus her attention on him yet miraculously preserving the enthrallment that the view had put her in, "Why do you feel so strongly for your duty? Why do you follow that duty?"

Hisui opened her mouth but found no words to speak with.

Why did she follow her duty so adamantly?

For what reason did her duty exist?

She... she already knew the answer, but in the face of this sight, she felt to ashamed to voice it.

 _"Hisui-sama, you will one day take the throne and, when that day comes, it will be your duty to lead us. It will be your duty to GUIDE us."_

 _"You must always be an upstanding person Hisui-sama, for this is your DUTY."_

 _"It is a heavy burden, Hisui-sama. But it is your responsibility to help the people of Fiore. It is your DUTY."_

Her father's face flashed in her mind,

 _"Hisui, one day, Fiore will become yours. When that day comes, it will be your DUTY to help and lead your people. It is a heavy burden, I admit, but I have full faith that you'll manage it."_

 _"I understand, father."_

 _"I wonder if you really do..."_

"For... my people," Hisui answered hesitantly, "My duty exists and I carry it out with such vigor for my people."

"Is that the truth?" Naruto asked, "Do you really feel like that from the bottom of your heart?"

Hisui remained silent for a while before she closed her eyes and spoke up, her voice softer than ever, "No... All my life, people have told me to do my duty for "the people", but I don't... I don't think I ever comprehended what that meant. Now though..."

She felt her mind bring up the memory of the small, shabby ramen bar called, "Hyorinzo Ramen". It had been a warm and cozy place; like a thick, fluffy, blanket had been draped over entire form in the middle of a chilling winter.

She felt a smile instinctively make its way on her face.

"I want to protect it... I want to protect that shabby ramen bar."

Naruto chuckled beside her, "Only that shabby ramen bar?"

Hisui remained silent.

"A leader..." Naruto said, his voice doused with nostalgia, "A leader should consider every single one of their people their family." She glanced at him and caught sight of him grinning abashedly, "Or, at least, that's what I believe."

Hsiui's slightly retrospective and depressed face belied the tumultuous feelings that she was concealing within.

"I... I don't understand, how would I even interact with every citizen in my kingdom?" She asked, her heart aching, "If I fought for something as vague and faceless like "the people", then I would simply fight a hollow battle. If I fought for something meaningful like that shabby old ramen bar, then I would fight a heavy battle _only_ for those that I feel close to. What should I fight for then? For what reason does my duty exist?"

"...My answer's a lot more simple and complex than your, "the people"," Naruto said after a moment of thought, putting air quotes on "the people".

Hisui waited anxiously as Naruto gestured at the vast city before her,

"This."

Hisui frowned as agitation overtook her, "What does that even mean? How is that an answer?"

"That's my answer and advice," Naruto said, "If I simply told you my answer and what I believed in, if I told you exactly what I mean by my words and _explain_ my belief to you, then, once again, you'd go back to doing stuff because people told you to. You have to find the answer and form your own beliefs on your own; I can only give advice."

Hisui sighed and felt as if the weight of the world had been dropped on her shoulders, "This is so... heavy. I feel so lost."

"That's why people don't generally start dedicating their lives to the happiness and safety of others at the age of twelve," Naruto said, "Take it easy, let your own beliefs form as you experience the world, and then, once you're all grown up, search for your own answer based on what you've seen and done. And hey, no one says that you have to do it alone; you can make plenty of friends to help you out. A journey is a lot less lonely when you have a friend beside you."

Hisui mulled over his words for a few minutes before she fixed him with a sad stare and shook her head, "That's not possible. I'm the princess of Fiore, you know? Despite what happened tonight, I'll never able to be "just Hisui". My life exist for the sake of the people of Fiore; I don't have time to go around experiencing the world."

Naruto grit his teeth before he exploded, "That's 'cause you're all alone!" He exclaimed, "You take on all this responsibility but you don't trust anyone else with it! You're father is the king of Fiore at this moment, y'know!? Why won't you just have faith in him to-"

"There's no point in debating on this topic," Hisui interrupted softly, "In the end, it doesn't matter what I believe in; all I have to do is help and save the people of Fiore."

Naruto sighed,

"You dumbass..."

* * *

"Are you finally ready to go?" Hisui asked as Naruto finished eating his breakfast.

The two had spent around two more hours on top of castle Mercurius before Hisui had fallen asleep and Naruto had decided that it was time to climb back down. One would think that the atmosphere would have been tense after their little debate, and it was, but only for around two minutes. The rest of the time was simply spent in trading various stories as they gazed upon the magnificent sight of Crocus underneath them.

He had to admit, he had never expected the king of Fiore to be such an... enthusiastic man. Hisui's stories painted him in a very unique light. Barely stopping him from venturing outside the castle dressed as a pumpkin? Now that was something he would have liked to see.

Of course, he'd only shared the harmless stories that didn't give much in the way of information. Namely, his stories had been centered around the various pranks that he'd pulled as a child.

He stood up and put his brown cloak on, hood and all, "Yep, let's go."

Hisui nodded and together, they both exited the safe-house.

"Did you talk to Clonius?" She asked.

"I think," Naruto cocked his head sideways, "It was that blonde guy with the scar on his cheek, right?"

Hisui nodded as they both maneuvered the crowded, sun-kissed streets, "Yes."

"Yeah, then I talked to the right guy," Naruto said, "He barely had any information at all. All I got was that magic attacks don't work on the golem for some reason."

Hsiui nodded again, "Yes, Clonius's magic is his main method of offense. Without it, he is useless."

Naruto sweat-dropped, _'Harsh...'_

"By the way, have you heard? Yesterday, Fairy Tail managed to stop Eisenwald from killing all the guild Masters with their new murder weapon. I think it was called "Lullaby"."

Reflexively, a small smile made its way onto Naruto's face, "Oh? That's nice."

Not that he had any idea what Hisui was talking about. True, for some reason, the news sent a small surge of happiness in him, but he honestly didn't even know what connection he had to all this. He at least knew that he had some sort of connection with Fairy Tail and he would have even said that the pre-amnesia Naruto used to be a part of Fairy Tail. But if that was true, then why was he labelled as a wanted criminal? How was it possible for him to be a part of Fairy Tail and a wanted criminal at the same time?

What was going on?

"Yes, I'm glad that the matter was resolved before anyone died," Hisui said, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts, "Too bad they couldn't save the guild Masters without destroying Oshibana station and the Guild Masters' meeting place."

Naruto chuckled even though he had no idea what those places were, "They did that?"

Hisui nodded.

A short, casual-talk filled walk later, they reached the Northern gate. Hisui went up to the seven fully armored guards and whispered something in their ears. He didn't know what she said, but judging from the way they snapped straight, he would at least gander a guess that they now knew her true identity.

Hisui gave him a nod, beckoning him to follow her. Not having any reason not to do so, Naruto did just that.

The scene before them was new sight for Naruto, he had travelled to Crocus by train after all. They were standing on a wide road which was surrounded wild, untrimmed grass, and mountains a few kilometers beyond that. Further ahead, the road separated off into many equally wide paths which, judging from the large billboards on the side of each path, probably lead off into various different destinations in Fiore.

"Come on," Hisui removed her hood and said, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts.

Naruto sighed and tiredly rubbed his eyes before removing his hood too. Only a few days spent in this new world, and he was already in the midst of saving it alongside a princess.

"Yeah, let's go."

What could he say? No matter which world he was in, he couldn't ignore a person in need.

He WAS a hero, after all.

* * *

Approximately an later, the duo were still slowly following the rugged and lonely path that Hisui guaranteed lead to the cave. The sun was shining high in the sky now and rapidly sapping their strength, all the while brightly illuminating the surrounding forest. The trees surrounding them were actually pretty short and were barely two times taller than Naruto; they were also very sparsely packed, as if a few people had decided to plant a bunch of trees in a sea of bushes.

Hisui wiped the sweat off her eyes with an elegant white handkerchief. "It's really hot... I wish things would cool down somewhat..."

An amused grin pulled at Naruto's face, "Looks like you're about to get your wish."

Hisui turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Look," He said, pointing to the sky ahead where a giant gathering of grey clouds were rapidly approaching, "Wanna head back? It's about to rain real soon. And very heavily by the looks of it."

Hisui narrowed her eyes and shook her head, "No. We are not delaying this any further. If we have to walk through some heavy rain to get this done today, then so be it."

Naruto shrugged carelessly, "Alright, it's your call." His amused grin widened in size, "Don't blame me if you get sick though. Little kids need to take care of their health after all."

Hisui's eye visibly twitched as she put up her hood, "...I will be fine."

Naruto shrugged again and also put up his own hood, "If you say so."

* * *

It had been several hours since it had started raining, and in a short while, the duo were forced to push through harsh winds and have downpour to continue moving forward. Their clothes were dripping with water, their face had gone numb hours ago, and Hisui's legs were ready to collapse any minute now.

Suddenly, she came to a stop, her gaze fixed on a white 'X' glowing on a tree. Naruto stopped behind her, looking mostly unfazed by the weather tormenting them.

"Now what?" he asked.

Hisui gestured into the forest with a slight tilt of her head, "Follow me."

She took a few measured steps into the wet shrubbery and kneeled. Her hands roamed along the ground for a few seconds before she caught hold of a small black button made out of what seemed like stone.

She carefully pushed it and instantly, a section of the forest dug deeper into the earth and slid away to reveal a flight of black stone stairs leading down into the darkness.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "...And no one accidentally managed to step on this before you came along and found it?"

"My soldiers and I had to solve a multitude of puzzles to reveal this button," Hisui explained, "If we hadn't solved those puzzles, then this button would have lain dormant deep beneath the earth."

"So why did you solve those puzzles? In the end, all you managed to do is make this technique easier to get to, right?"

Hisui nodded, "That is true, but I cannot allow the continued existence of such a technique. What if someone else caught a wind of it? That is why..." Her features hardened and her eyes shone with a powerful resolve, "I will acquire this technique, _and destroy it_."

Naruto couldn't help but be impressed. What a selfless little brat. Compared to her, he was infinitely more selfish as a kid- Granted, he had a motive to be, but the point still stood.

It made him a little worried.

"Are you coming?" Hisui asked.

Naruto stared at her for a several seconds, a calculating glint in his eyes, "...Sure."

Hisui shivered slightly at his look.

* * *

Carefully, the two descended into the dungeon. The only light provided to them was filtering in from the outside, so the deeper they descended, the darker their surroundings became. Soon, the darkness became so impenetrable that Hisui was forced to hold on to Naruto's damp cloak for support. She couldn't even see Naruto right in front of her anymore.

"Are you scared?" Naruto asked as he slowly guided her down the descending steps. Hisui suspected that he could feel her trembling slightly.

"N-no! Of course not!" Hisui yelled defensively.

Naruto chuckled amusedly and rolled his eyes, "Yes, of course not."

Hisui's eye twitched, "How can you be so calm anyway? It's so dark in here!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "And it wasn't dark the last time you were here?"

"Well, it was," Hisui admitted, "but there were also multiple soldiers around me with lit torches."

"Must've been hard to fight that golem with a torch in one hand," Naruto noted.

Hisui shook her head, "Having one hand occupied played no role in Clonius' defeat. The golem was glowing bright enough for us to see him so Clonius had already dropped his torch."

"A glowing golem..." Naruto mused before he shrugged, "Well whatever. I'll see it when we get there. Also, to answer your original question, just because it's dark doesn't mean I have to start panicking."

Hisui raised an eyebrow, "Can you see in the dark?"

"Nope," Naruto said, "I just have a good enough sense of balance and enough skill not to fumble around like an untrained civilian."

"Wow..." Hisui said in a slightly surprised tone, "S-class mages really are something else, aren't they?"

Naruto made a noncommittal noise, "Hmmm."

They made their way down the steps for a few more minutes before a dull purple glow greeted their eyes ahead of them. With enough light to see now, the two increased their pace until the ground evened out and opened up into a giant cavern. In the middle of the cavern stood a giant golem that looked like a massive humanoid bull made out of stone. Two enormous stone horns sat atop its head and razor sharp fangs protruded from its mouth. Its body was covered in strands of archaic unreadable scripture that lit up its body along with the immediate area around it, and its eyes shone with an inhuman red which seemed to promise pain to anyone who would dare face it.

"Oh," Naruto said, "So this is what you meant when you said that the golem was glowing. I though you meant that light would come from every part of its body or something."

"What?" Hisui gave Naruto a strange look, "Of course not, that would just be bizarre."

Naruto's eye twitched, "it's not like golems that can move and fight are really that normal either, you know? Or at least I think they aren't."

Hisui nodded, "Point."

The golem seemed to finally notice them and took a menacing step forward, a loud BOOM ringing throughout the cavern.

Naruto's eyes sharpened as he stepped in between Hisui and the Golem, as if he were a barrier, protecting her from the guardian made of stone.

"Step back. Things are about to get a bit dangerous."

Hisui nodded and retreated all the way back to the steps. From there, she could still see both Naruto and the golem, but would be far enough away from the fighting.

Naruto took a quick glance at his surroundings, _'It's too dark to see the borders of this place so I can't tell how wide this cavern really is. It's best if I keep this battle in the middle... I could easily end up getting cornered without even being aware of it.'_

Without any sort of warning, The golem suddenly leaped and sent a clawed fist flying at his face. Naruto ducked under the punch and leapt past the stone guardian, flinging a kunai at it while he was at it.

The kunai clanged uselessly against the Golem's body, a thin translucent blue layer flickering to life the instant the kunai made contact before disappearing just as fast.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he landed on his feet behind the golem, _'what was that?'_

The Golem wordlessly held out its hand and a giant stone axe with razor-sharp metal edges appeared out of thin air.

"Requip magic!?" Hisui exclaimed out loud.

 _'Sounds like this thing didn't bring out its axe last time,'_ Naruto mused.

The golem turned its head towards Hisui and Naruto took action right then and there. His hands flew into a seal, his index and middle fingers forming a cross. With a burst of chakra, a **_Shadow Clone_** appeared in a puff of smoke. It instantly launched itself towards the Golem and swung a powerful punch at it.

The thin translucent blue layer sprang back into existence around the golem and a large THWACK rang out as _**Shadow clone**_ 's punch struck the layer instead.

 _'It has a barrier that can absorb impact!?'_

The Golem swung its axe at its attacker but hit nothing but air as the _**Shadow Clone**_ quickly flipped away. The _**Shadow Clone**_ landed beside Naruto before they both rushed back at the Golem. The Golem's moves suddenly sped up and it wildly swung repeatedly at the pair of blondes.

Together, they swerved around its attacks, launched each other at it, and pulled each other out of harms way when necessary. Nevertheless, whenever their attacks connected, that same blue barrier kept reappearing.

THWACK, THWACK, THWACK, THWACK, THWACK!

The duo kept attacking relentlessly, but alas, their attacks simply would not connect.

Naruto ducked underneath the Golem's counter-swing as his _**Shadow Clone**_ leapt above it. The attack passed them both by before Naruto jumped to his **_Shadow_ _Clone_** , grabbed it by the ankles, spun, and then launched it at the Golem's head. Another axe swing came flying at him but he easily twisted underneath it.

The _**Shadow Clone**_ struck the Golem in the head with a mighty kick with momentum backing it up, but once again, a blue barrier stopped its attack short. Unwilling to give up, the _**Shadow Clone**_ pursued with a chain of quick alternating kicks, hoping that the barrier would give away. But suddenly, the Golem grabbed hold of the _**Shadow Clone**_ 's foot and launched it into the darkness.

A loud THUD and CRACK followed soon after.

Naruto retreated a few paces, but the Golem was quick to follow. It swung persistently, aiming to land even one strike on the whisker-marked blonde, before it suddenly took a mighty stab at him. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise but he quickly flipped over the attack, the stab barely nicking his sleeve. A **_Rasengan_** sprang to life in his hand mid-flip and he landed the attack on the Golem's shoulder.

A thin, translucent barrier once again appeared, only this time, it was red. The _**Rasengan**_ quickly sunk into the red barrier like quicksand.

The Golem went still and Naruto took that chance to retreat back to Hisui.

"Looks like we found the reason why Clonius' magic didn't work," Naruto said, panting a little.

Hisui eyes were wide open, "It absorbs magic..."

Naruto kept his eyes trained on the still golem, his breathing rapidly returning back to normal, "Looks like it."

 _ **"Foreign composition absorbed,"**_ A deep robotic voice suddenly echoed from the golem, _**"Identifying components... Identifying components... SUCCESS. Components identified. Components identical to Composition known as MAGIC. Now restructuring into utilizable composition... Restructuring... Restructuring... SUCCESS. Components restructured into MAGIC. New PATHWAY created. Foreign composition can now be quickly restructured into MAGIC and utilized efficiently."**_

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Oh? So this thing absorbs stuff like Chakra and Magic, and uses it for itself, huh..."

Hisui trembled slightly, "Neither magic nor physical force work... how on earth do we defeat this thing?"

"Well, we could just hammer away at it until it runs out of Cha- Magic," Naruto suggested, "But who knows how long that would take."

Hisui took a moment to muster her resolve. She clenched her fists and glared at the golem, "Irrelevant. If it takes us days to destroy this golem then that is what we will do."

Naruto shrugged, "Alright, Princess. I'll see what I can do."

The Golem raised a foot to take a step forward, but before he could, Naruto was instantly upon him, a kunai flashing towards its face. The Golem let the kunai bounce off of its blue barrier, and in one swift move, swung at Naruto's torso.

Naruto managed to bring his hands up to block the swing, but the statue's power was so great that even despite blocking the blow, Naruto was sent flying. He soared into the darkness before he crashed into the cavern wall with a loud BAM!

"Naruto!" Hisui yelled concernedly.

The Golem took slow menacing steps forward towards Naruto, slowly letting its glow wash over Naruto's fallen limp form. The wall was cracked behind him and he looked as though he would easily fall to floor on his back if it wasn't for the wall supporting him.

Hisui legs moved before she could even think. She started rushing towards Naruto before-

"What're you doing?" Naruto asked with a small smile, snapping her out of her frenzy, "It's dangerous for you to try and come save me, you know?"

"B-but-"

Naruto's smile vanished as he pierced her with a look, "Weren't you the one who said that it's your duty to help and save the citizens of Fiore? Weren't you the one who said that criminals' lives are worth less than normal citizens?"

"Y-yes, but..."

The golem advanced closer as Naruto continued speaking, "If what you said is true, then what you _should_ be doing here is escaping and leaving me to my fate. If you try and save me, then you'll be putting yourself in danger for a criminal - no matter if he's your friend - and you'll put the chance to better serve your people in jeopardy. That would be going against the very beliefs you came here for in the first place."

The Golem was only a few steps away now. Hisui felt her breathing fluctuate wildly as she trembled, her thoughts whirling around like a chaotic tornado.

Naruto grinned unconcernedly at her, "Why're you hesitating now? Didn't you say that all you were willing to do anything for the sake of your duty?"

"N-no..." Hisui sank to her knees, "I didn't know..."

Naruto grin died away as he pinned her with a glare that seemed to hold the weight of the world behind it, "Are willing to even sacrifice your friends for your beliefs? Don't forget, _this is the path you chose._ "

"I..." Hisui buried her head inside her trembling hands as her heartbeat echoed in her ears, even louder than the golem's footsteps. Her chest tightened painfully and a wave of debilitating dizziness and nausea hit her like train. Time seemed to stop to her and the world didn't even register anymore.

Was this what she had to do now? Sacrifice one of her only friends for the sake of her duty?

The past rang throughout her head.

 _'Hisui-sama, you will one day take the throne and, when that day comes, it will be your duty to lead us. It will be your duty to GUIDE us.'_

Naruto... She had to...

 _'No one here will judge you as the princess of Fiore. Did you forget? Right now, you're just Hisui.'_

No! How could she even...

 _'It is a heavy burden, Hisui-sama. But it is your responsibility to help the people of Fiore. It is your DUTY.'_

No... Even so... She had to...

 _'Nope, I said that I wouldn't judge you as the princess. What happened just now was pretty funny, princess or no.'_

Why!? Why did she have to...

 _'Hisui, one day, Fiore will become yours. When that day comes, it will be your DUTY to help and lead your people. It is a heavy burden, I admit, but I have full faith that you'll manage it.'_

Yes... That's why... This was her only path... She had to...

 _'Look at this place. Beautiful isn't it?'_

No... If upholding her beliefs meant sacrificing her friends... then... THEN... she would throw them away! She didn't know what path she truly wanted to take, but at the very least, she knew that she didn't want her friends and family to die!

Her heart soared as resolve washed over her entire being, washing away the blurriness, dizziness, and nausea. Looking up, Hisui saw the Golem looming over Naruto, its axe raised to land the finishing blow.

Kicking powerfully off the ground, Hisui rushed towards Naruto and tackled him out of harms way. The axe swinging downwards and barely missing them by a hair's breadth.

"I won't abandon you, Naruto-sama!" She yelled resolutely, pulling her self to her feet.

Naruto grinned, "Oh? Is that so?"

Hisui nodded fiercely as helped Naruto up, "Yes! I will save you!"

Naruto chuckled, "Well, that's a bit bad for my reputation, isn't it; being saved by a little brat who's barely twelve years old?"

Hisui felt confused at his confident attitude, "Naruto-Sama?"

A soft 'Poof' greeted their ears from the other side of the cavern.

Suddenly an orange pigment appeared around Naruto's eyes.

He stared at his hand, "Two whole minutes... Man, this world really is troublesome isn't it?"

"Naruto-Sama, what..."

"Just watch, Princess," Naruto said as he turned to the golem, "That blue barrier of yours absorbs physical impact and that red barrier absorbs energy like Magic and Chakra."

The golem took swiped straight at Naruto's head but he easily duck underneath it before scooping Hisui into his arms and retreating a ways away.

"But that red barrier of yours isn't showing up right now," Naruto continued speaking as he put Hisui down, "Which means that you're probably not absorbing energy right now. How strange, since there's plenty of energy in the air which you can use for yourself."

He smirked, his toad-like eyes glowing with confidence, "Or... could it be that you simply _can't_?"

The Golem leaped, its axe raised over its head, but Naruto leaped at the same time and launched his fist at its chest. Like always, a thin, translucent blue blue barrier sprung to life around the golem, but this time, Naruto fist crashed straight _through_ it, shattering it, and continued its way _into_ the Golem's chest. Inside the Golem's chest, something small and smooth greeted his fist, smashing to pieces against his powerful punch.

The Golem's movements instantly froze and its red eyes flickered for a moment before they went out, along with the strands of archaic purple symbols wrapping the Golem's body. It fell to its knees and crumbled into a pile of dust, A golem no longer.

Naruto silently heard more than watched (since it was dark again) as Hisui slowly walked over to the pile of dust and bowed her head, "Rest, Guardian. Your work is done."

Suddenly, the cavern rumbled and an odd grating noise greeted them. On the end opposite to the stairs, a section of the wall sank deeper and loudly slid away, revealing an entrance way into a bright room. The light from that room spilled into the cavern, lighting up their surroundings again.

The two turned to look at Naruto, a strange expression on her face, "I..."

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

She started trembling, before she ran towards Naruto and tackled him with a hug, "I-I'm so glad you didn't die!" Tears ran down her face as she sobbed into Naruto's chest.

"Yeah..." Naruto said softly, gently wrapping his arms around her small frame, "Thank you for saving me."

The young girl hiccuped for few moments before she slowly pulled away and glared at Naruto with watery eyes, "You... You were never in danger in the first place, right?"

Naruto shrugged and smiled warmly, "Even so, I'm glad you came and saved me."

Hisui clenched her fists and wiped the tears off her face, "Don't- Don't you dare ever do that! Whatever you were trying to get me to realize didn't work anyway! I don't even know what to do anymore!"

"Good."

Hisui looked up at Naruto with wide eyes, "Good?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, _good_. Because that's exactly what I was hoping for. It's great that there are so many people entrusting you with all kinds of different stuff, but that doesn't mean you can't do what you want to do. Maybe keeping your citizens safe and happy really _is_ your duty, but that sure as hell isn't anyone else's decision other than yours!" He knelt in front of her and looked her in the eyes, "You're only twelve so you have plenty of time to forge your own path. For now, have a bit of faith in your old man to handle stuff in his own kingdom, ok?"

Tears streamed down Hisui's face as she nodded.

"Also..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I may have gone a bit too far... so, um, sorry 'bout that."

Hisui remained silent for a few moments as she her crying gradually came to a halt.

She wiped the tears off her face again, "I forgive you," she mumbled.

Naruto grinned happily and got to his feet, "All right, that's enough moping around. Let's go take a look at this world destroying technique of yours."

"Yes."

* * *

Naruto felt apprehensive as he stepped into the brightly lit room, Hisui trailing cautiously behind him. The room was another cavern, only this time, there was a giant lacrima fixed high into the ceiling, a blinding light emanating from it. The entire cavern was empty except for a single plain marble pedestal sitting in the middle of the room. The pedestal came up to Naruto's chest and held a dull and opaque red orb the size of Naruto's face.

"Is that it?" Naruto asked, gesturing at the red orb with his head.

"I... suppose?" Hisui said, sounding unsure.

They walked up to it but did not touch it.

"So... should I just destroy it now or something?" Naruto asked as he brought up his hand, already internally molding his chakra for a _**R**_ _ **asengan**_.

"Of course not!" Hisui yelled frantically, "What if we accidentally release the spell and end up destroying the world!?"

Naruto let his chakra die down, "Good point." He leaned in inquisitively, "Have you seen anything like this before? Do you know what it is?"

Hisui shook her head, "No. I would think that you would be the one with more experience on these matters. You have, after all, travelled the world."

Naruto tried to peer through the orb as he spoke, "Oh? I didn't tell you? I've actually lost all memories, so you actually probably know more than me at the moment."

Hisui's eyes widened as she turned to look at Naruto, "Eh? Lost your memories? What do you mean?"

Naruto straightened and turned to Hisui, "Exactly what you heard; I've lost all my memories."

Hisui blinked, "Huh? Then how did you defeat that golem back there, and how did you tell me all those stories of your childhood back on castle Mercurius' roof?"

Naruto shrugged, "I guess still have a few memories left in me, including my old skills as an S-class Shinobi."

"Shinobi?"

Naruto laughed sheepishly, "Oops. Sorry, I got my terms mixed up. I meant Mage."

"Wait... does this mean that you don't even remember being a criminal? Actually, when did you even lose your memories?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't really know when I lost my memories since I was in coma until just recently. And the only reason I know that I'm a criminal is because the person who nursed me back to health told me so."

"Is that why you said that you were too busy to help me when we first met?" Hisui asked, "Because you were trying to find a way to restore your memories?"

"Kinda," Naruto said, now circling the orb and surveying it, "I probably already know _how_ to get my memories back, but..." he trailed off, unsure of how much he should reveal.

"But?" Hisui urged curiously.

Naruto paused for a moment before he sighed resignedly, "Okay, so the method to getting back my memories is probably to reseal a giant nine-tailed fox back inside of me. For some reason though, no one's seen this giant nine-tailed fox anywhere, which is bit weird since it's probably as large as Crocus and has the power to destroy mountains and create tsunamis with a flick of its tails."

Hisui eyes widened, "D-does a creature like that really exist?"

Naruto nodded, "Yup, and don't get any funny ideas about destroying him too. First of all, he's immortal, so there's absolutely no way for you to kill him. And second, he's my friend."

"Y-your friend?"

Naruto grinned, "Yup, we had a pretty rocky start, but we ended up becoming super close friends!"

Hisui pinched the bridge of her nose, "I will not even ask how you came to be friends with such a terrifying monster..." a thought occurred to her, "and how do you even know your relationship history with this monster? I thought you had lost your memories."

Naruto shrugged easily, "Another one of the memories that stayed in me."

"Really?" Hisui asked suspiciously.

Naruto nodded, "Yup. That's also why I came to Crocus. A very helpful person told me that I could find all sorts of information here since this is the home... of..." He turned to Hisui, greed glinting prominently in his cerulean eyes, "...the royal family."

"Wh-what?" Hisui asked, taking a defensive step back.

"Come to think of it, as a princess, you have access to all sorts of private info, right?" Naruto asked, a mischievous grin on his face.

Hisui glared resolutely, "Yes, but I will _not-_ "

"Don't worry," Naruto interrupted, "I don't want any private info on your citizens. I just want you to check if any giant nine-tailed foxes were spotted from two years ago to now. Any strange power spikes would also help."

Hisui's resolute glare fell away, "O-oh. Well I suppose I could do that..."

Naruto gave her a grateful smile, "Thanks!"

Hisui shyly smiled back, a faint red tint surfacing in her cheeks, "Y-you're welcome," she said quietly.

Naruto turned back to the red orb, "Now...this thing."

The mood sobered and serious expressions found their way to the duo's faces. They stared at the orb for a few seconds, contemplating what to do with it before Naruto made a decision and slowly reached out to pick it up.

Behind him, Hisui gulped. But she did not stop him, so he continued.

Carefully and gently, he put his hand on the orb.

For a second, nothing happened. Then suddenly, the orb flared blindingly and shattered like glass, the various pieces all turning to dust and unnaturally evaporating into the air.

A sharp pain erupted in Naruto's head as foreign information rapidly flooded into his mind. His head felt like it was being constantly hacked at by several sharp axes and he sank to his knees, unable to even remain standing. A few seconds later, the pain faded away, leaving only the new knowledge in Naruto's head as proof that it once existed.

"Naruto-sama, are you okay?" Hisui asked as she rushed to Naruto and helped him up.

Naruto winced as he rubbed his head, "Yeah... I'm fine now."

He took a moment to review the new knowledge he had received, and suddenly, a booming laugh escaped his throat, reverberating throughout the cavern.

"Naruto-Sama?" Hisui asked.

Naruto continued laughing for a few seconds before he quieted into gentle chuckles, "Looks like there was no reason for you to worry about anything."

Hisui tilted her head questioningly.

"That orb," Naruto answered, "when I touched it, it gave me everything I need to know about this technique- stuff like 'how to use it' or 'what it does'. Turns out, it's actually a pretty dangerous technique; it can destroy entire dimensions."

Hisui's eyes widened, "Then how can you say that there was no reason for me to worry? A technique like that is definitely dangerous enough to warrant concern!"

"It's 'cause no one can actually _use_ this technique," Naruto said, "It simply requires too much power."

"How can you be so sure that no one will be able to use this technique?" Hisui asked, "There are many mages in this world who have more than a lot of magical energy."

Naruto smiled and shook his head, "No, trust me. There's probably _no one_ in this world with enough power to use this technique."

He narrowed his eyes, _'Even Kurama's and my chakra combined would fall short of this thing's power requirements. We'd probably get close though."_ He turned to look at the new empty pedestal, _'From what I could sense in my Sage mode, there's no one in a wide radius who has even a millionth of the power required to activate this technique.'_

Hisui looked at Naruto worriedly, "Even if there's no one in the world who can use this technique, we still have plenty of magical items or weapons that can generate a _lot_ of magical power. The Etherion being one example."

Naruto gave Hisui a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, "I don't know how much power this Etherion of yours has, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have enough power to activate this technique. And, even if it does, I guess it's a good thing then that it's inside only my head now."

Hisui glared at the ground, "I intended to completely destroy it."

"Don't worry," Naruto said, "I have no intention of teaching this to anyone, and I can't even use it. It's basically useless knowledge now and will disappear forever when I finally die of old age."

Hisui contemplated his words before her shoulders relaxed and she gave him a grateful smile, "I suppose I shall have to be content with that."

Naruto gave her a small pat on her head, "Like I said, don't worry; you did a great job in saving the world."

Hisui couldn't help but grin childishly.

* * *

Makarov felt a sigh bubbling in his throat as he watched Laxus taunt Natsu from the second floor.

"I mean, I'm the strongest," Laxus declared. Where had he gone wrong with that child?

"Come on down, bastard!" And there went Natsu, always looking for a fight.

"Why don't you come on up?" Laxus suggested with a malicious grin.

Natsu easily fell for the bait, "Bring it on!"

He took off towards the stairs, but Makarov was having none of that. Instantly his hand extended, enlarged, and crushed Natsu into the floor.

"You can't go to the second floor," He calmly announced, "Yet."

Laxus laughed mockingly, "Ha ha! You got scolded."

Makarov let out an annoyed sigh as Natsu struggled to stand back up, "You too, Laxus, stop it."

Laxus continued regardless, "I'll never give Fairy Tail's strongest position to anyone else. Not to Erza, not to Mystogan, not even to that geezer. I'm... the strongest!"

* * *

Makarov concealed his presence and watched silently as Laxus swaggered his way down the crowded and noisy streets of Mognolia. Oh, Makarov knew where Laxus was going, but even so, he couldn't help but watch. It was one of the only displays of Laxus' human side these days. And even that would probably stop if the young boy found out that Makarov was watching him.

Finally, Laxus reached his destination: the graveyard. One would think that he would walk less arrogantly in such a mournful place, but it seemed like Laxus couldn't care less. He carelessly strutted up to a specific grave and looked down at it disdainfully.

He remained quiet and didn't say anything for several minutes- Makarov could guess why. The incident between Laxus and Natsu today was very similar to another incident which had occurred a few years ago.

"'I'll come up there one day and kick your ass, huh?'" Laxus derisively recited, "Look where you are now. You turned out be all bark and no bite."

Makarov sighed sadly at his grandchild's behavior. To a normal person, it would seem like Laxus was mocking the dead. But Makarov knew his grandchild, he knew that Laxus wouldn't have come back to this grave again and again if he hated this particular person that much. He knew that Laxus would have spit a lot more vitriol at the grave if this grave belonged to someone he truly hated.

Laxus turned with a sneer and swaggered away, leaving the grave for the world to see.

 _Naruto Scarlet_

 _X767 - X782_

* * *

 _'I shouldn't have used Sage mode back then...'_ Naruto thought to himself with a sigh as he stared at his empty hand and lounged on the couch back inside Hisui's hide-out.

Sage mode wasted most of Kurama's chakra out of all his techniques for some reason. Perhaps it was because Kurama wasn't inside him to anchor his Chakra and it was pushed out when Naruto was absorbing Natural energy and balancing it, or maybe Sage mode just unconsciously made him use more of Kurama's chakra. Whatever the reason, the fact still remained that Sage mode was his most unfeasible technique. If he had to rank his techniques in order of feasibility, then: the technique that took the least amount of Chakra was the Rasengan, then came the Shadow Clones which took a decent amount of his Chakra, and finally the most draining of all was Sage mode.

Well, the Shadow Clones were a special case considering the fact that he only lost their Chakra when someone destroyed them without him releasing the technique, otherwise he only dispersed his chakra, so it easily came back once he released the technique.

The ticking of the fancy, ornate clock high up on the wall drew his attention. Noon had just struck.

He loudly sighed again. It had been two whole days since he and Hisui had gone and retrieved that world-destroying spell, and Naruto couldn't help but feel the restlessness bubbling inside of him.

The last two mornings were spent with him basically just sitting on his butt doing nothing while Hisui searched through past reports and records, trying to find any sign of giant nine-tailed foxes and unnatural power spikes. After noon, Hisui led Naruto through the city and introduced him to all the famous locations worth visiting. At the end of every night, she took him to places where they could just wind down and have fun, like the movie theater and amusement park.

He'd only seen one movie but he'd really liked _Mage Wars - A New Hope_.

Naruto would have liked to help Hisui in her search, but considering the fact that he was a supposedly dead S-ranked criminal, he didn't really think that the guards would be very willing to allow him into their information room- or wherever they stored their information. Sure, he could just sneak in, but sneaking to the roof and sneaking into a room full of potentially sensitive information were two very different matters. Even if he managed to make it to the information, he would be too on-gaurd to actually focus on reading all that information.

Maybe he should should just steal it?

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the door smoothly opened and Hisui strode inside, fully cloaked and hooded. She was holding a black briefcase one-third her size.

She removed her hood, revealing her furrowed brows and distinct frown, "I'm sorry, Naruto-sama, I couldn't find anything of use at all."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Nothing at all?"

Hisui shook her head, "Nothing at all."

Naruto rubbed his chin, "That's weird... That Oba-san who healed me up said that the fire that started up in Daffodil forest two years ago was very unnatural 'cause it was so humid there all the time. "

"Keep in mind, Naruto-sama," Hisui said, "even if we are the royal family, we still cannot know about every single event which occurs in this country. It is a very large country after all."

Naruto nodded, "Makes sense... I guess." He closed his eyes tiredly, "I wonder where I should go now though; I'm all out of leads."

Hisui paused for a few seconds before an idea popped into her mind, "Perhaps Magnolia?"

Naruto opened an eye and curiously looked at her, "Magnolia? What's that?"

Hisui looked at Naruto, a strange apprehensive look in her eyes, "It is... the home of your former guild: Fairy Tail"

Naruto stared at Hisui, both eyes open by now, "You want me to go back to a guild that not only thinks I'm dead but also, according to the Oba-san who healed me, I just up and left?"

Hisui nodded, "Yes."

"What do you want me do with them?" Naruto asked, "Ask them about my past?"

"Perhaps, if you want to," Hisui said, "I was more thinking about asking them if they knew anything about this nine-tailed fox of yours. They used to be your fellow guild members, so they should know at least _something_."

Naruto tilted his head and thought about it, "Hmmm, well, I don't really have any other leads anyway. I wonder how far this Magnolia place is though."

"It at least takes at least a few days by train. Which reminds me," Hisui said handing Naruto the black briefcase in her hand, "Here is the money you asked for helping me. I would have brought more, but then father would have gotten suspicious."

Naruto privately wondered why he felt like such a jerk as he took the briefcase off Hisui's hands. He opened it up to reveal stacks and stacks of money. From what he could estimate, this much money would be enough for him to live comfortably for years and years to come without working at all.

Having this much money would be awesome, but...

He looked at Hisui, and a sigh immediately escaped his throat.

Reaching into the briefcase, Naruto took a few stacks and put into the kunai pouch attached to his thigh. He closed the briefcase and handed it back to Hisui.

"I don't intend to take the train anyway, so this much is more than enough," he said with a small smile.

Hisui raised an eyebrow, "You don't intend to take the train? Why?"

"You just said it," Naruto said, "You guys just can't know about every important thing that happens in Fiore. That's why, I'll walk to Magnolia and ask the the people of the towns, cities, and villages along the way if they've seen anything."

"I suppose that makes sense..." Hisui mused.

"Anyway," Naruto got to his feet and stretched his back and limbs, "Now that I've got my next destination, I should probably get going."

Hisui's head whipped up, "You're leaving now?"

"Yup," Naruto said as he put on his cloak and black schoolbag, "I probably shouldn't waste any time."

Hisui looked downcast and tears threatened to spill out of her eyes, "O-oh," She said, trying her best to inject enthusiasm into her voice, "Safe travels then!"

Naruto looked at her with a small frown on his face. He knelt, and cerulean met emerald.

"Hey," he said, a gentle smile on his face, "We'll definitely meet again someday. After all, we're friends, aren't we?"

Hisui blinked her tears away and smiled softly, more genuinely this time, "Yes, of course we are."

Naruto grinned widely and offered her his pinky, "It's a promise then."

Hisui gently wrapped her small pinky around the offered digit. His pinky was a lot larger than hers.

"Yes, it is."

* * *

 _ **Author's Note: So... that took a long time. i would make excuses, but the truth is that I just kinda worked on this little by little when I felt like it until I finally got here. The next update probably won't take this long, but who knows, life is unpredictable. Anyway, it should take about one or two more chapters before Fairy Tail and Naruto have their first interaction in this fic.**_

 ** _Moving on, does anyone else feel like the first half of this chapter is just written a lot better than the other half, or is it just me? I wonder why?_**

 ** _P.S. I know European royalty doesn't work exactly the way Naruto implies, but we don't actually know how royalty works in the Fairy Tail universe (I think) so let's just all let that go._**

 ** _P.P.S. Sources are really unclear on whether Naruto loses his Shadow Clones' chakra when someone destroys them, so I decided to keep that weakness. Because seriously, Shadow Clones are some of the most OP things in the entire Narutoverse._**


	4. Erza and Naruto

"Kyaaa! Ezra, you're amazing!" Lucy yelled excitedly as she felt her exhaustion from the past few weeks melt away bit by bit.

From their S-class mission on Galuna island, to the guild war against Phantom lord, to helping Loke return back to the Celestial Spirit World... Whoo! She just needed some down time to relax, and thanks to Loke, she got to do it in the world-famous Akane resort!

Currently, Lucy and Erza were gambling in the resort's fancy casino, and Lucy could feel the crowd's eyes on them as Erza won every single hand.

"Fufu," Erza chuckled smugly, "Luck is on my side today."

A dark-skinned, blonde haired man with a small tattoo on the side of his chin and a long earring with an ornamented cross hanging off his left ear, came up to the current dealer and smoothly pulled him away, "Time for a dealer change."

"Right now I feel like I can't lose no matter who I'm up against," Erza confidently announced.

"Hell yeah!" Lucy cheered.

"If that's the case, why don't we enjoy a special game?" The new dealer asked, "Except we won't be betting money..."

He skillfully shuffled the deck of cards and fluidly distributed five cards to Erza.

Erza looked down and blinked. The cards each had a stylized letter on them and together they spelt:

 _DEATH_

Erza looked up confusedly and her eyes widened as she suddenly started trembling. Lucy raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior.

The dealer grinned sinisterly, "Let's bet with our lives, Erza-neesan."

Erza's voice quavered, "Shô..."

* * *

Naruto frustratedly rubbed his hair as his gaze washed over the peaceful forest surrounding him, "Another bust..."

It had been a month and half already and he still hadn't even made it to Magnolia- a trip which should have taken a week at most. This was because many people along the way had claimed that they'd felt strange power spikes in the areas close by, and each time Naruto had gone to check out these places in case he could find any hints on Kurama's whereabouts.

But each time, he'd found nothing.

He rubbed his head to stave off the incoming headache. All that time lost for nothing.

 _'Maybe I should just stop looking for strange power spikes?'_

He considered the thought for few moments before he shook his head. No, the fact that he couldn't sense Kurama meant that either Kurama was somewhere really, really far away, or that Kurama was hidden from his senses through some kind of method like sealing techniques.

But Kurama was powerful, incredibly so. Whenever someone would try to use Kurama's power in any way, some sort of strange power spike would most definitely occur. He would just have to tough it out and look at every lead he could find.

And if Kurama was somewhere really, really far away... well, then he was screwed. Wandering countries without any idea of where he was going was a pretty stupid move though, so searching for leads like this would have to do.

The soft rustle of trees snapped him out of his thoughts. A man garbed in elaborate dark blue clothes and bandages on his limbs stepped out of the foliage. His hair was covered by a bandana with a silver forehead protector and his face was covered by a large green scarf. There were multiple unique looking staves attached to his back.

"Do you have business here?" He asked softly, oddly sounding a bit tired.

Naruto shrugged, "Kinda. I heard that there was a strange power spike here and came to check it out."

The mysterious man nodded curtly, "You do not have to worry about that anymore. I have already dealt with the situation."

The man moved to walk away but Naruto stepped in front of him, "Wait, what was that strange power spike anyway?"

"You do not need to know."

Naruto's eye twitched in annoyance, "I do! Please, just tell me!"

The mysterious man raised an eyebrow, "...Why must you know so badly?"

Naruto pursed his lips as he internally debated wether he should tell this mysterious man the truth or not. On one hand, telling this person the truth might end up with him spreading this information, which might end up with Naruto facing severe consequences.

Severe consequences such as multiple COUNTRIES searching for Kurama to use his power for themselves. Although, a scenario like that was highly unlikely since Fiore's royal family clearly had no records about any kind of nine-tailed fox, and it was very unlikely that people would even spread rumors about something no one had ever even seen.

On the other hand, this man didn't seem the type to blab anyway, and telling this man the truth would probably be the best way to get across the gravity of the situation he was currently in.

...But maybe a lie could do the same?

He mulled over the thought for a few seconds before internally shaking his head. No, this man had given him no reason to lie... for now.

He came to a decision and sighed, "My friend, a giant nine-tailed fox is missing. It should've been pretty easy to find him since he's as large as Crocus and has the power to destroy entire cities in one attack, but I've been searching for a long time now, and still haven't found even a trace."

"As large as Crocus and able to destroy entire cities in one attack..." The mysterious man's eyes widened as he whispered in awe, before, in a few short seconds, he recovered his posture, "I see, and I assume you are asking me about the power spike here because you are trying to find any evidence of unsealing and the like?"

Naruto grinned, "Exactly! You're pretty smart!"

The mysterious man shook his head, "Unfortunately, the power spike you heard about occurring here had nothing to do with your... 'friend'. It was simply a personal matter of mine."

Naruto visibly deflated, "Oh."

The mysterious man nodded, "Good day," and walked away.

Naruto watched his back grow smaller despondently for a few seconds before he rubbed his eyes tiredly, "I guess I should get going too..."

* * *

Ezra sluggishly opened her eyes, "Ugh..."

Suddenly, her brain jumped to life and the usual sharpness returned to her brown eyes. She looked around, she was in a wooden storeroom of some kind, filled with boxes, barrels, and different kinds of supplies.

She tried moving her hands, but found them bound to a wooden pillar behind her.

"Ungh!" She struggled, "Where is this?"

"We're on a ship, Nee-san."

Erza looked up at the flight of stairs left to her and recognized the tan skin and blonde hair, "Shô."

Shô descended the stairs and walked up to her.

"A ship?" She asked.

Shô nodded, "That's right, a ship headed for the Tower of Paradise."

Ezra felt a terrible unease grow in her heart and looked down at the ground. She tried to smile, "Is that right..." She looked up at Shô, "Can you release me? I won't fight anymore."

Shô shook his head, "No can do, because, Nee-san, you're a traitor."

Ezra struggled futilely against her restraints, "Ungh!"

"It's no use," Shô said, "Millianna's ropes have the power to seal magic. Not even you can free yourself, Nee-san."

"I understand..." Erza trembled, "at least let me put on my armor. I'm afraid... to go back to that tower." Erza started sweating, "If I don't put the armor on... I'll never feel secure."

Shô smiled, "Those clothes suit you too, Nee-san."

He abruptly hugged her and her eyes widened, "Shô..."

Tears poured out of Shô's eyes, "I didn't want to do this to you," he rambled, "I wanted to see you so bad, I heard even Naruto died... Really, Nee-san, why did you... betray us?"

He pulled back and glared at her as his face twisted with anger, "WHY DID YOU BETRAY JELLAL!?"

Erza closed her eyes, _'Jellal...'_

* * *

 _Five small and dirty children in ragged clothes and manacles gathered around a small hole in a wall. A sixth dirty and manacled child with scarlet hair trailed behind the group hesitantly._

 _"Nee-san!" Shô, a blonde haired and tan kid, called to the sixth child, "Over here! Hurry!"_

 _"_ _Shô! Don't talk so loud!" Wally, a black haired kid with a large pointed nose, yelled._

 _"I wish we could take Naru-chan with us..." Milliana, a small child with cat-like eyes and brown-colored hair formed in a bobcut, said sadly._

 _"It can't be helped, Millianna," Wally said, "He's still recovering from the punishment they gave him for trying to break out again. We'll just get some help from the outside to free Naruto and the others."_

 _"Erza, hurry up or we'll be found by those guys," Simon, a kid with a wide jaw and black hair split in a middle-parting, urged worriedly._

 _Ezra trembled in fear, "I... If they find us... I-I know how they treat kids who get found-"_

 _"It's okay, don't be afraid," A blue haired child with an intricate tattoo on the right side of his face, said, walking up to Erza._

 _Ezra looked at him with wide eyes, "Jellal..."_

 _He gave her a radiant smile, "We almost have our freedom and futures and dreams. Let's go, Erza."_

 _Ezra blushed and smiled back, her fear evaporating away "Ok!"_

* * *

Night had fallen by now and Naruto sleepily rubbed his eyes as he walked through a thicket of trees and shrubbery. He was here because further along the main road, he had come across another village who's residents had also claimed to sense a strange power spike from somewhere nearby in the forest.

Naturally Naruto had gone to look.

He walked through the undergrowth and entered into a narrow clearing from where a shallow river flowed through. To his surprise, he caught sight of the mysterious man he'd met earlier, resting with his back against a particularly wide tree on the other side of the river.

"You again," Naruto said by way of greeting as he easily hopped over the river.

The mysterious man looked up. "Greetings." He said. He sounded oddly haggard.

"So... Are _you_ the one who's been causing all these weird power spikes?" Naruto asked. He'd found this guy near two rumored power spikes now, surely that wasn't all a coincidence.

The mysterious man shook his head,

"No."

"Really?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Yes."

Naruto squinted at the Mysterious man before he sighed and plopped down beside him, his angle faced away from the Mysterious man since the trunk he was leaning on was not wide enough for two people to lean on one side,

"So? What's your name?" He asked, looking over at the mysterious man.

The Mysterious man took a few seconds to answer.

"...Mystogan."

"Mystogan..." Naruto repeated, testing the name on his tongue, "My name's... Sasuke. Nice to meet you."

"Sasuke is not your real name, correct?" Mystogan asked.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "You found out, huh..."

"You were too obvious," Mystogan said, "It is clear that you are inexperienced at this."

Naruto's eye twitched, "It's not like you're any better at this! I can easily tell that Mystogan's a fake name too!"

"It is not a fake name," Mystogan said, "It is my title."

Naruto pouted stubbornly, "I asked for your name though."

"I deemed my title good enough."

"You're an asshole, you know that?"

"I was not aware," Mystogan said flatly.

* * *

"We'll always be here for you, Erza," Lucy said with a gentle smile.

Erza had already escaped imprisonment hand had been ready to deal with Jellal herself, but these people, Lucy, Gray, Natsu, and Juvia were all insisting on helping her out. Well, to be more precise, Natsu had already run off to find Happy, and she wasn't why this Juvia girl was here, but other than that they were all trying to convince her to let them help her out.

Erza could feel herself trembling as her tears built up, "G... go..." She said feebly.

"Erza..." Lucy said.

"This isn't like you, Erza," Gray said, "Why can't you just stop saying all this useless stuff and tell us 'follow me' like you always do? We'll help you out, even you're allowed be scared sometimes, you know."

Erza turned to look at the group and could feel her inner defenses crumbling as her left eye became watery.

"In this fight..." Erza said, wiping the infant tears away, "Whether I win or lose... I will disappear from this world no matter what."

Gray and Lucy's eyes widened.

"WHAT!?" Lucy exclaimed.

"Wh-what do you mean by that!?" Gray asked.

Erza clenched her fists, "This is an unavoidable future, so... so while I'm still here, I'll tell you everything I know."

Lucy and Gray waited with bated breaths.

"The name of this tower is the 'Tower of Paradise', otherwise known as the 'R-system'," Erza explained, "More than a decade ago, a cult believing in black magic tried to build a tower whose magic could bring the dead back to life."

"Bring the dead back to life!?" Lucy gasped.

Erza nodded, "This project wasn't sanctioned by the government or the Magic Council, so they rounded people up from all countries and forced them to work as slaves on the construction." She looked down at her armored hand, "When we were young, Naruto and I were some of the many people forced to work here."

"Naruto?" Lucy asked, unaware of who Erza was talking about.

"Ah, I forgot," Erza said, looking at Lucy, "You just recently joined. Have you heard of the Orange Demon?"

Lucy closed her eyes in thought, "Hmmm, the Orange Demon..." Her eyes snapped open, "Ah! I remember now! He was the mage who left Fairy Tail five years ago and became a criminal, right? If I remember correctly, he became an S-rank some time after that..."

Erza sadly nodded, "Yes, he was also my brother."

Lucy's eyes widened, "You have a brother!?"

Erza nodded again, "Had. He died three years ago. We weren't blood related, but we became family here. Not just Naruto and me, but also Millianna, Shô, Wally, Simon, and Jellal too." She chucked melancholically, "I can still remember the time when Naruto was first brought here..."

* * *

 _Erza listened curiously as angry voices reached her ears from the darkness beyond her cell._

 _"Let me go, you bastard!" A child's voice yelled._

 _A rough voice answered, "O-oi, just shut up and stop squirmi- hey! What are you-"_

 _A dull 'thwack' greeted her ears. They were getting closer._

 _"That hurt, you brat!" The rough voice yelled, "Settle the hell down!"_

 _Two figures emerged from the darkness, A gruff looking old warden and a struggling blonde child in his arms. T_ _he warden brutally slammed the blonde boy against the bars of Erza's cell and she_ _yelped and took a surprised step back._

 _"Ugh!" The blonde boy grunted in pain as blood flew from his mouth._

 _The warden unlocked the cell, threw the blonde boy boy inside, and locked the cell back up._

 _"Don't go around making any trouble now," The warden said to the blonde boy with sadistic grin, "Or actually, do; I hear they take entire limbs and eyes from people who have the guts to rebel."_

 _The blonde boy struggled to his feet and wiped away the blood dripping from his mouth, "Bring it on, I'll beat you all to a pulp!"_

 _The warden laughed sinisterly, "We'll see how long you can keep up that attitude."_ _He turned and left._

 _The blonde haired boy, seeing that the coast was clear now, sunk to his knees._

 _He reached his hands behind his back and tenderly pressed on it before visibly flinching , "Ow... what an ass..." he muttered with a wince._

 _Erza took this moment to examine him more thoroughly. He was dressed in rags, just like her, and had spiky blonde hair. His eyes were a cerulean, defiant blue, and strangely enough, he had whisker-marks on his cheeks._

 _"Um, are you okay?" Erza asked the boy._

 _The boy waved her concern away, "Don't worry, I heal really fast."_

 _"O-oh," Erza said. She hesitated for a second, unsure wether he was just acting tough or actually telling the truth, before s_ _he decided to just believe him and let her worry go, "So, what's your name?"_

 _The boy looked at her with evaluating eyes, "...Naruto. Just Naruto."_

 _Erza smiled and reached out for a handshake, "I'm Erza. Just Erza. Nice to meet you!"_

 _Naruto warily took her hand and shook it , "Nice to meet you too, I guess."_

* * *

"...He always rebelled against the gaurds and tried to fight back," Erza continued, "But Naruto was weirdly smart. He did five times more work than anyone else, so the torturers weren't allowed to break any of his bones or remove any of his limbs or eyes. They still hurt and wounded him, but he healed fast, so in a few days, he would always rebel again."

"So you and Naruto started off from here..." Gray said, looking around at the tower with more scrutiny now.

Erza nodded, "Yes, we even got our surname, 'Scarlet', here." She sadly gazed at the ceiling above her, "It was actually Jellal's idea..."

* * *

 _Four children dressed in ragged clothes were sitting in a circle inside a cell. Three of the children were talking, while the last - the blonde one with whisker marks - was sleeping hunched over._

 _"Jellal Fernandes?" Wally repeated, "That's going to be a pain to remember!"_

 _Jellal laughed good-naturedly, "Coming from a boy named Wally Buchanan? I just know I'm going to forget that one."_

 _Wally laughed and turned to Erza and Naruto, "What about you both, Erza?"_

 _Erza raised an eyebrow as she absentmindedly flicked Naruto beside her in the cheek to wake him up, "Us both? What makes you think I know Naruto's last name?"_

 _Wally blinked, "Well, siblings usually share the same last name, right?"_

 _Naruto slowly cracked his eyes open and tiredly rubbed them as Erza shook her head, "We're not siblings though. Naruto and I didn't even know each other before we met in this tower."_

 _"Oh," Wally said, "Its just that you guys act so much like siblings, I thought you guys were actually related."_

 _Naruto yawned, seemingly unaware of anything that was going around him. Erza gave him a fond look, "Yeah, I guess even though we weren't born as family, we still managed to become one. Whatever the case, neither Naruto nor I knew our real families so we don't actually have any last names."_

 _"That's kind of... sad..." Jellal said._

 _Erza tilted her head, "What, the fact we didn't know our families?"_

 _Jellal nodded, "That too, but also the fact that you guys don't even have any last names."_

 _He looked pensive as he leaned over and examined a few tufts of her hair._

 _"H-hey!" Erza said, feeling a bit of heat rise up to her cheeks._

 _"Such beautiful scarlet hair..." Jellal mused before his eyes widened, "That's it! Why don't we call you 'Erza Scarlet'?"_

 _Wally gave the blue-haired boy an incredulous look, "'Why don't we...'? Just like that?"_

 _Erza smiled to herself as she ran a hand through her hair, "Erza... Scarlet..."_

 _Jellal grinned, "It's the colour of your hair. That way I'll never forget it!"_

 _Naruto raised a hand, the sleep still visible in his posture and eyes, "Does that mean my name is going to be 'Naruto Yellow' now?"_

 _Jellal shook his head, "Nope, you're last name is going to be 'Scarlet' too."_

 _Naruto looked bewildered, fully awake now, "Huh? But my hair isn't scarlet."_

 _Jellal's grin widened, "Like Wally said, siblings should share the same last name."_

 _Naruto flopped to the ground on his back and turned away, "'Naruto Scarlet'... How lame."_

 _Erza laughed. He was smiling._

* * *

Erza smiled a sad sort of smile, "Then one day, Shô found an escape route. Jellal, Milliana, Shô, Wally, Simon, and I tried to escape from there. Naruto was still injured so we had to leave him behind, but we promised to get help and come back for everyone, including him."

"It didn't work out, did it?" Gray asked grimly.

Erza shook her head, "No, we all got caught."

Lucy gasped, "What did they do?"

"They tried to search for the person who'd come up with the entire plan," Erza said, "Shô was scared out of his mind, so I was about to step in and say that it was me, but Jellal was faster. I'd barely said anything before Jellal confidently said that _he_ was the one who'd planned the escape. Maybe it was because I still said something before Jellal, but the wardens thought that I was the one to plan the escape."

Erza smiled deprecatingly, "I tried to act brave, but I still remember how I was shivering in fear back then. They tortured me for a few days and took my right eye before Jellal came barging in. Turns out that Naruto had played the distraction while Jellal came to rescue me. But, there were still a few wardens keeping a watch on the torture room. They captured Jellal and threw me back into my cell."

She paused for a moment to organize her thoughts, "...Shô started crying, and my eye was hurting, and I could still hear the sounds of Naruto fighting, and... I finally couldn't take it anymore. A guard tried to enter the cell to shut Shô up, but I took his weapon and knocked him out. That was when I rallied everyone to rebel."

"But the rebellion failed?" Lucy ventured.

Erza shook her head and gazed at her fist as she clenched it tightly, "No, it took a lot of sacrifices, but we finally managed to win back our freedom. But..."

* * *

 _"Out of the way," Erza said coldly, slashing through the trembling Black Magic priests who had tortured her and cut out her right eye not so long ago. She did not spare them a second glance._

 _She ran into the torture room and caught sight of Jellal's battered body hanging limply by his bound hands._

 _"Jellal!" She yelled happily as she cut his binds and manacles, "It's okay, it's all over! Just like you said, we all stood up and fought!" Jellal remained silent as Erza continued speaking, "Simon is hurt badly, Rob-ojii-san protected me and... many others sacrificed themselves..." Erza gave him a brilliant smile, "But we won! We're all free!"_

 _She helped Jellal up, "Let's go!" She said, "Wally and the others have taken those guys' private ships. We can leave this island!"_

 _"Er...za" Jellal said slowly, abruptly hugging her, "We don't have to run anymore."_

 _Erza blushed a bit at his close contact, but still blinked at his strange words, "Eh?"_

 _Jellal's hug tightened and a malicious grin sprouted on his face, "True freedom is right here."_

 _He let go of her and unsteadily trudged towards the Black Magic priests, his form becoming steadier with each step he took._

 _"Jellal," Erza called out confusedly, "What are you saying? Let's escape this island together!"_

 _"Erza, true freedom does not exist in this world."_

 _Erza's eyes widened._

 _"I've finally realized," Jellal said ominously, "What we need is not fleeting freedom." He looked back at Erza, a crazed look in his eyes, "True freedom lies in Zeref's world."_

 _Erza took a fearful step back._

 _"I'm beginning to appreciate their feeling, their desire to revive Zeref," Jellal said, "But those guys could never feel Zeref's presence, they were only a bunch of pitiful believers." He put a foot on a fallen priests face, "Isn't that right?"_

 _"Eeep!" The priest tried struggling but couldn't even move his body._

 _"This tower is mine," Jellal said, a twisted grin on his face, "I will be the one to complete the R System and revive Zeref."_

 _Erza trembled, "What's wrong with you, Jellal? I don't understand what you're saying-!"_

 _With a crazed laugh, Jellal swung his downwards, causing some sort of invisible force to pierce through the priest's skull. Blood splattered everywhere._

 _Erza put her hands over her mouth and screamed silently._

 _Another priest tried to crawl away, "Please... please stop..." he moaned piteously._

 _Jellal swung his hand towards the priest, and the priest was sent flying. He crashed into the wall and the invisible force pressed against his head, causing it to crush horribly like a grape._

 _Amidst the fog of fear, Erza's brain still had enough presence of mind to notice something,_

 _"Magic?" She whispered._

 _Jellal's hand sliced through the air two more times, and the last two out of the three priests left alive found their bodies completely mangled, their blood gushing out like a geyser._ _They screamed in pain as the life drained from ttheir eyes._

 _Just like that. Jellal had killed them just like that, without feeling any guilt or hesitance. He was even smiling!_

 _Erza couldn't take it anymore._

 _"Stop, Jellal!" She yelled desperately._

 _Jellal froze and looked back at her, "Stop? Don't you hate these guys, Erza?"_

 _The final priest took this chance to try and run away._

 _"Yes, but... this is..." Erza trailed off, unable to put her thoughts into words._

 _"That won't do," Jellal said chidingly, "You'll never feel Zeref's presence like that."_

 _A demented grin broke split his face and he thrust his arm towards the fleeing priest. Erza turned her head away as the sound of impact and screaming hit her ears._

 _Jellal laughed a cold, deranged laugh, which boomed throughout the room and and sent cold sweat down Erza's spine._

 _"Jellal, get a hold of yourself..." Erza pleaded desperately, "It must be because you've been tortured for days..."_

 _"I'm just fine," Jellal said, a crazed smirk nestled on his face, "Erza, let's complete the R System... No! The 'Tower of Paradise', together!"_

 _Erza mustered up her courage and took a quivering step forward, "Stop talking such nonsense! We're going to leave this island!"_

 _Jellal's eyes widened angrily. He thrust his palm out and an invisible attack sent Erza flying._

 _"Kyahh!" She yelled as tried to regain her balance._

 _Jellal was having none of it though. Every time it seemed like she would be able to land on he feet, Jellal would swing his arm again, striking her with another invisible blow. Until finally, she skidded along the ground and collapsed._

 _"Fine," Jellal said, "If you want to leave so badly, then go by yourself."_

 _Erza weakly tried to bring herself up, "B-by myself?"_

 _"The others all belong to me," Jellal explained, "I'll need sufficient manpower to complete the Tower of Paradise." He advanced menacingly, "You don't have to worry, I won't be like those cultists. I'll give everybody clothes, food, and let them rest. Because laboring under fear and brutality is much too inefficient."_

 _"What are you talking about?" Erza asked frustratedly, tears leaking out of her lone eye, "Everyone is already on the ship! They're all waiting for us! They'll never come back to this island to work!"_

 _"Those cultists never told us the purpose of their labour," Jellal said, "I will tell everyone that the true purpose of their work is to revive a great magician known as 'Zeref'."_

 _"Jellal, please..." Erza said miserably, "Open your eyes."  
_

 _Jellal squeezed his index finger and thumb together, like he was pinching something something, and Erza felt an invisible set of hands squeezing her neck._

 _"It... it hurts," Erza gasped as she felt her windpipe start to crush under the pressure._

 _"I don't need you anymore," Jellal said, "But I won't kill you, because I'm thankful that you took care of those guys who were in the way. Go and pursue your fleeting, insignificant 'freedom' if you want."_

 _Erza felt her body slackening despite her command for it to move, and her vision blurred as blissful darkness started encroaching from the edges._

 _Jellal pinched his fingers closer together, increasing the pressure, "I think you understand that what happened here is not to be spoken of to anyone. If the government gets wind of the Tower of Paradise, this rare opportunity will be ruined. If we are found out, then I will have to erase the evidence by destroying this tower and everyone in it. Also, I forbid you to come near this place. If you are seen here, I will start killing everyone immediately." Jellal grinned maliciously, "And I'll start with Shô and the others."_

 _Everything had turned into a blurry mess of black and white for Erza by now, and she could feel the last of her willpower and consciousness fading away into the darkness. Only a single thought remained, and even that she could feel slipping away,_

 _"Je...llal..."_

 _Jellal laughed a deranged laughter, "THAT'S YOUR PRECIOUS 'FREEDOM'! GO ON AND LIVE WHILE CARRYING THE LIVES OF YOUR FRIENDS UPON YOUR BACK, ERZA!"_

 _"Oi, shut up and calm down," a voice said from behind Jellal, before a kick came flying at his face and sent him crashing against a wall. Instantly, the invisible set of hands choking Erza disappeared and she collapsed on the ground, coughing and gasping for vital air. The colour and clarity of her vision rushed back and beat back the invading darkness._

 _She looked up at her savior and recognized the messy blonde hair, cerulean eyes, and whisker-marked face._

 _"Yo, Nee-san, you alright?" Naruto asked as he walked up to her and helped her up._

 _"Y-yeah, I-"_

 _"Naruto..." Jellal's voice interrupted them. He loosened himself from the wall and advanced menacingly towards the duo, "How dare you..."_

 _Naruto turned to the blue-haired boy and gave him a steely glare, "I don't know how much these guys tortured you, Jellal, but we can finally escape this island and be free now. If you get in the way of our freedom with your little temper tantrums, then I'll take you down just like every other enemy who kept us trapped in this place."_

 _Jellal grinned nastily, "Do you really think you can?"_

 _Without waiting for an answer, he thrust his hand towards Naruto violently. Naruto instantly leaped sideways, avoiding the invisible attack._

 _"I already saw how your power works back when you used it against Nee-san!" He growled as he shot off towards Jellal. Jellal tried to swing his arm again but Naruto reached him first and swiftly kneed him in the face._

 _"Ugh!" Jellal yelled in pain and rocketed backwards before he skidded along the ground and lay there. Naruto leaped forwards and was about to land a punch on the downed Jellal, before Jellal swung his arm upwards. Naruto's eyes widened as something invisible slammed against his chin and sent him flying upwards._

 _"Naruto!" Erza yelled in concern as he landed on the ground on his back with a heavy 'THUMP'._

 _Erza's eyes sharpened at the sight of her downed adopted sibling. She swung her arm and telekinetically sent her two swords flying straight at Jellal. Jellal jumped to his feet and batted the swords away from the air with a wave of his hands._

 _"Don't you care about Shô and the others, Erza!?" He yelled furiously._

 _Naruto clambered to his feet, "As long as we take you down now, we won't have to worry about that!"_

 _"YOU..." Jellal's magical energy suddenly flared. He pulled his hands back and PUSHED._

 _Naruto's eyes widened, "Wait-!"_

 _A powerful force rushed towards them, as evidenced by the ceiling and floor being sent flying away in front of them. Erza instinctually leaped at Naruto and wrapped him protectively in her arms, her back facing Jellal. A split-second later, a massive amount of energy crashed against them, sending them airborne at the wall at an insane speed._

 _Before Erza lost consciousness from the impact, she caught a glimpse of some sort of red, bubbling energy escape from Naruto's body and wrap around them._

* * *

 _The first thing Erza noticed was the soft sound of footsteps plodding along the hard ground underneath her. A rush of dull pain greeted her entire body next._ _She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that she was being carried on the back of a small blonde boy._

 _"N-Naruto?" She whispered weakly._

 _He did not look back, nor did he answer. He simply continued trudging forward on the lone road, his back hunched with the weight of her slightly taller frame._

 _She looked up, the moon was out in all its glory tonight and the ocean of stars were providing a divine accompaniment for it._

 _The day's memories slowly trickled back in to her mind, Rob-jiichan's death, Jellal's deranged laughter..._

 _Their loss against Jellal..._

 _Warm tears started leaking out of her lone eye and she buried her face into Naruto's back. She cried openly as she clutched Naruto around the chest and screamed. She screamed as if she could just expel all the sorrow and grief in her heart if she just screamed loud enough._

 _It didn't work._

 _Finally, she could scream no longer._

 _"Why...?" She whispered in a cracked voice._

 _"...We'll definitely save them," Naruto declared softly, his resolution ringing into the night, "One day... we'll definitely defeat Jellal and save them."_

 _Erza brought up her teary face and looked down at the blonde boy in something akin to a trance._

 _Naruto still didn't look back. His cerulean eyes, blazing with a powerful resolve, were fixed on the path in front of them,_

 _"I promise."_

* * *

"...Naruto is dead, but I will still fulfill that promise he once made," Erza said, her voice an echo of her adoptive brother's determination, "And to do that, I must defeat Jellal."

Gray and Lucy both looked too stunned to say anything. Juvia was the first one to speak,

"How did you both even escape this island, if Juvia may ask?"

Erza shook her head, "I don't know. When I asked Naruto at a later date, he told me that all he remembered from that time was a strange vision of a giant nine-tailed fox."

"A nine-tailed fox?" Gray asked before shaking his head, "No, more importantly, Erza, that 'Zeref' you just mentioned is..."

Erza nodded, "Yes, the most brutal and cruel dark mage of the Magic world. The Black Mage Zeref."

* * *

Naruto was awoken from his rest when a large wave of Magical energy washed over him. His eyes snapped open and caught sight of a beam of brilliant light descending from the sky and striking the earth somewhere far away.

"What the-"

"Satellite Square: Etherion," Mystogan informed, also awakened by the powerful Magical energy.

'So _that's the Etherion that Hisui was talking about...'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Do you think that maybe Kurama's there?" Naruto asked.

"I assume by 'Kurama' you mean that nine-tailed fox you were talking about earlier?" Mystogan asked.

Naruto nodded.

Mystogan thought about it for a second, "...No, I do not believe that 'Kurama' can be found there. If this nine-tailed fox was truly as powerful as you suggested, then we would have sensed its power- especially if the council sensed it too, which must be true for this scenario to work as only the council has the authorization to fire the Etherion. Although, I suppose the Council could have caught wind of where of where it was sealed and decided to use the Etherion on it, which seems very unlikely and foolish to me."

"Yeah, plus they would've filed some sort of report for something like that, and I couldn't find any kind of report like that in Crocus," Naruto said.

Mystogan looked at Naruto with questioning eyes, "You were allowed to look at such reports?"

Naruto shrugged noncommitally, "Kinda."

"You do realize, if you only search for strange power spikes then you will never find your friend." Mystogan said.

Naruto nodded, "I know, and to make matters worse, I'm on a time limit of a few months."

"Do you not have any other leads?" Mystogan asked.

Naruto rubbed his chin, "Hmmm..." His eyes widened as he remembered the Susan-oba-san's words,

 _"There are multiple rumors that claim that an airship was spotted right on top of that huge forest fire two years ago. I don't know if that has anything to do with your search, but I for one think that a forest fire suddenly occurring in Daffodil forest, where the air is always quite humid, and you being brought to the edge of death at the exact same time is too coincidental to ignore. And, if I'm right and that's the case, then that means that that airship might have some connection to whatever happened two years ago."_

"Oh, I'm also searching for airships!" Naruto said.

"Airships..." Mystogan mused, "I can only think of two guilds at the moment who have an airship: Blue Pegasus and Grimoire Heart."

"Blue Pegasus and Grimoire Heart," Naruto repeated, "I'll have to check these guilds out after Magnolia."

"It is very unlikely that Blue Pegasus is the guild which stole your friend," Mystogan said, "They are an extremely light guild on par with Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail. They have shown no signs of evil at all."

"I'll have to check Grimoire Heart first then," Naruto said.

Mystogan shook his head, "It is true that they are a dark guild, so they are likelier suspects, but I'm afraid you will not be able to find them. They are a very secretive guild- even this information about them having an airship, I got because of a fluke."

"A fluke?"

Mystogan nodded and explained, "I am an S-class mage, so I am tasked with destroying many Dark guilds. One of them happened to serve under Grimoire Heart and just happened to know that they have an airship."

Naruto rubbed his chin, "Could _you_ track down Grimoire Heart if you wanted to?"

Mystogan looked at Naruto warily, "Perhaps... I do have access to the council's most sensitive information on Dark guilds..."

Naruto looked at Mystogan hopefully, "Can you please track down Grimoire Heart for me?"

"No," Mystogan instantly rejected, "I am busy with my own work."

"Please!" Naruto begged, "I'll owe you a favor - or - or anything! Just tell me what you want in return. Money maybe?"

"I do not care for money," Mystogan said "But... your offer for a favor intrigues. A powerful Mage like you owing me a favor might turn out to be very useful..."

Naruto raised eyebrow, "How do you know I'm powerful?"

"I can sense your energy. It is strange and unlike any magic I have ever felt, but I can tell that you hold tremendous power."

Naruto frowned and clicked his tongue, "Tch, I forgot." He immediately clamped down in his chakra.

"Oh? You can suppress it too? Impressive."

Naruto sighed, "Guess you found me out... again." He looked up at Mystogan and the hopeful eyes returned, "So? Do we have a deal?"

Mystogan took a few moments to respond, "...Very well."

He stuck out his open hand, and Naruto shook it, grinning wildly.

"Thanks!"

* * *

Erza opened her eyes. She swiveled her head as she floated through a large expanse of white.

 _'Where am I? Inside the Etherion?'_

She felt around for a bit,

 _'No... this is different... warmer...'_

She looked down and her eyes widened. She was now floating above a graveyard bombarded by heavy rainfall. There was a crowd of people there, all dressed in black clothes of mourning.

A funeral.

She moved closer. a good look told her that almost every single person attending the funeral was a member of her guild, and they were all standing in front of a grave decorated with a statue of a heroic female knight on a horse.

The grave proudly displayed:

 _Here lies Erza Scarlet_

 _X765 - X784_

Erza looked away and closed her eyes painfully, _'So... I'm actually dead... Guess I'll meet you sooner than I expected, Simon, Rob-jiichan, Naruto...'_

She could hear the sounds of her guild members' sobs and her chest tightened.

"She..." She heard Master Makarov speak, "Erza Scarlet... loved all of us, her dear friends... her heart was larger than the endless sky... and her sword gleamed brilliantly for the sake of those she loved. Her figure, dancing like a fairy, was more beautiful than any of nature's greatest vistas."

Ezra forced herself to look back down at the funeral.

"Love makes people strong," Makarov continued, "But it is love, too, that can make people weak. I..." His voice died away and he sniffed as his fresh tears mingled with the rain.

Erza's eyes stung.

 _'Master...'_

"I... loved her like my own daughter..." Makarov grit his teeth, clearly struggling to voice the words he absolutely had to say next, almost as if him not saying them would somehow change reality, "I pray... that she may rest in peace..."

With that, all energy visbly left Makarov's body and he sank to his knees.

* * *

Naruto slowly cracked his eyes open to the beaming sun. Unwilling to move his currently lethargic body, he simply stared at the cloudless blue sky.

Dew sat upon the tree's leaves above him, and the dirt beneath had become mud overnight.

 _'Last night... was really stormy...'_

Last night, a few hours after Etherion had struck, the skies had been filled with rumbling black clouds, and before they knew it, Mystogan and Naruto had been drenched in heavy rain. The storm had continued for some time after that, lightning striking here and there every now and then. Mystogan had left but Naruto didn't really have any other place to take shelter so he brought his body closer to his chest, used his cloak to blanket his body, and went back to sleep under the flimsy cover of the tree.

The sun's bright rays of yellow brought Naruto back to the present and, having felt that he'd rested enough (especially when time was such a precious resource), Naruto brought himself up. His rain-soaked clothes weighed him down as he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a damp set of the clothes identical to the ones he was wearing. Wet though they were, they still hadn't been directly exposed to the rain, which meant they were certainly drier than the clothes he was currently wearing.

He frowned as he put on the clothes and stuffed the previous garments into his bag. The bag too had been thoroughly drenched now, and he would have to carry it by hand rather than on his shoulders if he didn't want a giant wet spot on his back.

 _'I'm really having bad luck with rain these days...'_ Naruto thought to himself as he applied toothpaste to his toothbrush and dipped it into the river.

He methodically rubbed the toothbrush against his teeth and closed his eyes, focusing all his senses outwards in an effort to catch an accidental spike of Kurama's chakra. He had been doing this every morning since leaving leaving Crocus, but unfortunately, hadn't had any luck. This wasn't an overly surprising development for Naruto- he wasn't using Sage mode, so his sensing radius was actually quite small. It'd be a miracle if he caught some trace of Kurama like this.

But even so, he couldn't help but try.

A few minutes later, Naruto released a sigh as he spit out the toothpaste in his mouth and opened his eyes. Once again, no luck.

He glared at the surrounding trees as he gargled. The sight which had always cheered him up, now seemed to reach out to him threateningly like wooden, gnarled, claws.

He was running out of time.

* * *

 ** _Author's Note: Yes, Yes, I know... another late chapter. I honestly thought that my work load would decrease, only for it to end up increasing. But no one wants to hear about my personal problems, the main point is, for the next chapter, I'm reasonably sure I'll be able to have it out in under a month. I'm still busy until next week, but after that, I am a HUNDRED PERCENT sure I'll have more free time. Sorry, and thank you for all of you who suffered through such a long wait time but still continued to read this story._**

 _ **Just putting it out there though, I have no intention of maintaining such a slow pace.**_

 ** _Now, onto other stuff. So this chapter isn't meant to advance the plot as much as it is to expand on Fairy Tail's and Naruto's backstory, connection, and relationship with each other(Especially Erza and Naruto's relationship with each other). But that doesn't mean this is just filler. From how I see it, Fairy Tail's relationship with Naruto ABSOLUTELY has to be further expanded, because otherwise, the emotion or empathy of their side of the story will be lost._**

 _ **I suppose that statement will make more sense in the coming chapters.**_

 _ **Also, the plot has not been forgotten in this chapter. In fact, a very important event has occurred in this chapter which will turn out to play a crucial part in the plot.**_

 _ **Maybe I shouldn't write that (since it might give part of the plot away)... But this is story that is released by chapters, not a book, so I didn't want you guys to think I just added this chapter in for padding or something.**_


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